everlasting flames 3. The condemnation with which the unbeliever is condemned is expressed verse 36. by the abiding of the wrath of God upon him 4. It is also opposed unto salvation verse 17. God sent not his Son to condemn the world but to save it and surely the condemnation which is opposed to Salvation is more then the condemnation of a mans own conscience for that may very well consist with Salvation yea they that are saved are for the most part more subject to it in this life then they that perish 3. A third Argument is drawn from the several comparisons by which justification by Faith is illustrated Sometimes 't is compared to the Israelites looking up to the Brazen Serpent for healing Joh. 3. 14. Num. 21. 8 9. As then they were not first healed and then looked up to see what healed them but they did first look upon the Serpent and then they were healed Even so is it the will of God That whosoever seeth and believeth the Son shall be justified John 6. 40. He is not first justified and then seeth the Son sometimes Faith is compared to eating and Justification to the nourishment which we receive by our meat John 6. 51 52 53 54. We are not first nourished and then eat the meat that nourisheth us but we eat our meat that we may be nourished by it In like maner we are not first justified and then believe on Christ that hath justified us but we believe in Christ that we may be justified 4. A fourth Argument is drawn from the perpetual opposition between Faith and Works from whence the Argument is this What place and order Works had to justification in the Covenant of Works the same place and order Faith hath to our justification in the Covenant of Grace But Works were to go before our Justification in the Covenant of Works Ergo Faith is to go before our Justification in the Covenant of Grace To the minor I say nothing because there is not a man in the world that doth deny it as I know of and that being granted the major also must be out of question If the tenor of the first Covenant Do this and live by the consent of all People and Nations Jews and Gentiles will undeniably evince that Works were necessary Antecedents of justification in that Covenant why then should not Believe in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved which is the tenor of the New Covenant Rom. 10. 6 9. plead as strongly for the like necessity of the Antecedency of Faith to justification in this Covenant 2. Faith and Works have the like order to justification in their respective Covenants or else justification by Faith and justification by Works are not opposed for Opposita sunt circa idem The Jews looked after Righteousness by the works of the Law The Apostle tells them they must seek it by Faith Now if they say we must be justified by Works to wit formally and before God and the Apostle say Nay but we must be justified by Faith to wit declaratively and before Conscience then the establishing of justification by Faith will not destroy justification by Works and so there will be nothing but falshoods and equivocations in all the Apostles Disputations against Justification by Works And how easily might the Jews and the Apostle have been reconciled They say We must be justified by Works and he says We must be justified by Faith it is but distinguishing Works do justifie us before God but Faith must evidence and declare this to us and they are agreed 5. Adde further what the Apostle says 1 Cor. 6. 11. Such were some of you but you are washed but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Where the opposition between the time past and the time present doth evidently argue that the words have this sense Such and such you were in time past Fornicators Idolaters c. and therefore must have been shut out of the Kingdom of God verse 10. But Now you are washed Now and not before you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus that is through Faith in his name compare Acts 3. 16. and 10. 43. If then the Corinthians were not justified before Faith Why are Englishmen It is to no purpose to say here That now they were declared in their own Consciences to be justified and so they were not before whiles they lived in those abominable sins For 1. Why may not we understand the word Sanctified in the same sense seeing we are said to be sanctified by Faith Acts 26. 18. and 15. 9. 1 Pet. 1. 22. as well as justified by Faith And so suppose that these Corinthians had a seed of Grace before but buried under the dirt and rubbish of vile sins till by Faith they came to see that they were sanctified There is nothing can be alledged for Justification before believing which will not hold as strongly for Sanctification before believing nor any reason why Sanctification should not be understood for a Sanctification declared as well as Justification for a Justification declared 2. The Justification which they now had was that which gave them right and title to the Kingdom of God which right and title they had not before no more then others that did yet continue in Idolatry Fornication Uncleanness and the other sins specified It is acknowledged of all hands that Justification includes an adjudging of us unto life or a giving us a right to the Heavenly Kingdom if then these Corinthians had this right before they believed then did their Faith give them no more security of Salvation in point of right then they had before or then might be affirmed of them who did yet abide in their sins and by consequence if they had lived and dyed in their sins they might have gone to Heaven notwithstanding though for want of Faith to see this their right they could not have departed with so much comfort of Spirit For if faith do onely declare that we have a Title to the Heavenly Kingdom then it makes no relative change in our condition from a state of death into a state of life and so whether we believe or no all is one as to the certainty of our Salvation though we want the evidence and perswasion of it If it be here said that all whom God in his secret justification hath adjudged unto life shall have the evidence thereof by Faith I Answer This evidence is of such necessity as that if they have it not they shall lose that life to which they are adjudged or no If not then whether they believe or do not believe they shall be saved If it be then is there no absolute justification before Faith and justification must be conditional and the immediate and absolute right to life must be acknowledged to be a consequent of Faith which will at once overthrow Mr. Eyres Opinion and confirm this Argument without any more ado What remains to be done is to
JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH OR A CONFUTATION Of that ANTINOMIAN ERROR That Justification is before Faith BEING The SUM SUBSTANCE Of a SERMON Preached at SARUM By Benjamin Woodbridge Minister of Newberry in BARKSHIRE May 26. 1652. Imprimatur Edmund Calamy GAL. 3. 16. We have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the Faith of Christ London Printed by John Field for Edmund Paxton and are to be sold at his Shop in Pauls-Chain over against the Castle-Tavern near to the Doctors Commons 1652. Christian Reader THe Doctrine of the Gospel concerning the Justification of a believing Sinner because it exceedingly illustrates the glorious riches of Gods free Grace and magnifies his Justice because it is the onely support of comfort to a wounded conscience and takes away from man the cause of boastings and is so much above the invention and credulity of reason is most plainly delivered and often inculcated by the holy Ghost in Scripture in that we learn all the causes of Justification The efficient Rom. 3. 24 25. 26. God The inwardly movings his rich mercy great love The meritorious Jesus Christ The material the obedience of Christ The formal the imputation of Righteousness without Works The instrumental by which it is received Faith The final the glory of the grace of God and the salvation of the believing sinner This Doctrine hath in all ages been opposed obscured sometimes by manifest enemies and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 professedly sometimes by professed friends and such as would be accounted the great pleaders for free Grace What errors Papists Socinians Arminians erre in this weighty Doctrine I relate not This short and learned discourse which thou art presented with deals not with these but with Antinomian Error It is a true observation of godly Mr. Shepheard Mark Sound believer p. 96. those men that deny the use of the Law to lead unto Christ if they do not fall in time to oppose some main point of the Gospel For it is a righteous thing but a heavy plague for the Lord to suffer such men to obscure the Gospel that in their judgements zealously dislike the use of the Law This thing these men have done asserting That all the elect before their Conversion and Faith stand actually reconciled to God and justified before him A strange Assertion as reverend Dr. Downam rightly terms it to be uttered by a godly man Covenant of Grace p. 292. This is the Opinion in this Treatise confuted and proved contradictory to Scripture fit onely 1. To sew pillows under the elbows of prophane men 2. To overthrow the comfort of Believers destroying the ground nature use and end of Faith Curcellaeus judges the differences amongst Christians Prefat in op Episcopij in this Point of Justification of so small concernment as that they ought not to breed a controversie But Reader When the glory of God and comfort of thy soul lies at stake as in these matters do not thou think either that men wrangle about a Goats wool or that the matter doth not concern thee Thou art beholding to the learned Author for the penning of this Tract but for the publishing of it to another into whose hands it came That thou mayest read it and weigh it without prejudice and profit by it is the Prayer of James Cranford Justification by Faith Worthy Sir ACcording to your desire and my own promise I here send you the Copy of the Sermon which I Preached lately at Salisbury against the Opinion so much prevailing amongst you of Justification before Faith I have made several additions to several Arguments and annexed a large Answer to the two Arguments which Mr. Eyre made use of against me after the Sermon was ended The Introduction to the Text and the Applicatory part of the Sermon I shall not trouble you with but onely with that which is Doctrinal and Controversal HAving then read those words in Rom. 5. 1. The Point observed was this That we are justified by Faith To write down all the places that give evidence to this truth were to Transcribe almost the whole New Testament Gal. 2. 16. We have believed in Jesus Christ that we may be justified by the Faith of Christ where Justification is expresly made a consequent of Faith And as Glory follows Justification so doth Justification follow Vocation unto Faith Rom. 8. 30. and Righteousness saith the Apostle shall be imputed unto us if we believe Rom. 4. 24. so Acts 10. 43. and 13. 39. and 26. 18. with multitudes of other places The onely Answer which is given to these and the like Texts is this That by Justification we are to understand a Justification in the Court of Conscience or the Evidence and Declaration of a Justification already past before God so that Faith is said to justifie us not because it doth justifie us before God but because it doth declare to our Consciences that we are justified Against which Gloss I have several things to oppose 1. That it is a contradiction of the Holy Ghost It is well known that the Apostle in the Epistle to the Romans and to the Galatians sets himself on purpose to assert the Doctrine of Justification by Faith in opposition to Works The question between him and the Jews was not Whether we were declared to be justified by Faith or Works but Whether we were justified by Faith or Works in the sight of God or before God and he concludes that it is by Faith and not by Works Thus Rom. 3. 20 21. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested c. The righteousness of God without the Law is the righteousness of Faith and by this we are Justified in the sight of God and not by the deeds of the Law Again Gal. 3. 11. But that no man is justified by the Law in the sight of God it is evident For the just shall live by Faith where the Argument is clearly this If we are justified by Faith in the sight of God then we are not justified by Works in the sight of God But we are justified by Faith in the sight of God For the Just shall live by Faith Ergo not by Works From which places we may safely infer that where else the Apostle speaks of Justification by Faith in opposition to Justification by Works he is to be understood of Justification before God or in the sight of God and not onely of Justification in our own Consciences 2. It is also a most unsound assertion that Faith doth Evidence our Justification before Faith The word Evidence may be taken improperly as signifying no more then an Argument and so Faith may be said to Evidence Justification as an effect doth argue the cause As laughing and crying may be said to evidence reason in a childe not that it is necessary they should evidence it to the childe it self
no other name given under Heaven Acts 4. 12. that is no other name appointed so Eph. 1. 22. and 4. 11. and a hundred other places In this sense the giving of the Spirit is no more then the sending and as it were the constituting of the Spirit to be by way of specialty the worker and cause of Faith 2. The word give doth sometimes include a receiving and possession of the thing given as in the ordinary use of the word and thus the Spirit is given when we receive him and are as it were possest of him and he becomes ours and dwells in us Thus the Lord promiseth to give the Spirit to them that ask him Luke 11. 13. and we are said to receive the spirit by Faith Gal. 3. 14. and the Spirit is said to dwell in us by Faith Eph. 3. 16 17. with Rom. 8. 10 11. and of this latter way of giving the Spirit is the Question to be understood 2. The Spirit may be said to be given three ways 1. Essentially 2. Personally 3. In reference to his operations The Spirit is not given to us essentially for so he is God and is equally every where nor can he be more peculiarly in one then in another Nor 2. Personally for that cannot be conceived without a personal union which would denominate us as truly to be the Spirit of God as the like union in the man Christ Jesus did denominate him to be the Son of God 3. The Spirit therefore must be said to be given to us in regard of some peculiar operations which he worketh in us which are incommunicable to those which have not the Spirit so that common convictions illuminations humiliations some joys of heart and the like which are transient Works of the Spirit common to them that are saved and to them that perish Heb. 6. 4. Matth. 13. 20. and all other works which may either go before or be without Faith these are none of them such kinde of works as that in respect of them the Spirit should be said to be given to us wherefore there being no peculiar work of grace before Faith it self which may not be wrought in a Hypocrite which hath not the Spirit as well as in a childe of God therefore the Spirit is neither given nor received before Faith be wrought but is given and received together with Faith in the same instant of time and not before Indeed as every cause is in nature before its effect so the Spirit also in order of causes is before Faith but that he is therefore given to us in the least atome of time before the being of Faith is a meer non-sequitur and contrary to the received maxime Posita causa in actu ponitur effectus which rule Mr. Eyre hath often abused to prove a Justification immediatly upon the death or resurrection of Christ and yet here he cannot understand it so that as a man doth first build himself an house and then dwells in it So the Lord Jesus by his Spirit doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 3. 3. build and organize and prepare as we render the Greek wood Luke 1. 17. the soul to be a house unto himself and then by the same Spirit dwells in it immediatly And this is that which I would have spoken publiquely in answer to this Argument if Mr. Eyre had not been beyond measure obstreperous Yet here it may be demanded Whether Faith it self be not given to us by vertue of the Covenant made withus Answ Faith is not given to us by vertue of the Covenant made with us but by vertue of the Covenant made with Christ that is God hath promised and covenanted with Christ that if he will lay down his life for the redemption of sinners those sinners shall be drawn to believe in Christ and thereby to partake of the benefits of his death That this is so the Scriptures are plain Isa 53. 10. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for him he shall see his seed He shall see of the travel of his soul by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many so Isa 55. 4. 5. Behold thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God and for the holy One of Israel for he hath glorified thee Psal 2. 8. Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance c. So Psal 110. 3. Matth. 12. 21. And why did the Lord appoint Apostles and Ministers to carry the sound of the Gospel from one end of the earth to the other and subdueth Nations to the obedience of the Faith but that he may accomplish his promises made to his Son such as are recorded in Psal 89. 25 26 c. Now to the words of the Covenant Jer. 31. 31. repeated by the Apostle Heb. 8. 10. This is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel I will put my laws into their mindes and write them in their hearts and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people From whence Mr. Eyre infers That the Spirit and Faith is given by vertue of the Covenant made with us But I answer 1. That if Mr. Eyre will urge the words of this Text rigorously they would prove more then he would have For it is manifest That this Covenant contains a promise of sending Christ into the world and giving him up to death for our sins as the Apostle doth directly prove Heb. 10. 14 15 16. and why then may it not be inferred That the elect are in Covenant with God not onely before they believe but also before the death of the Mediator and so his death was not to obtain all or any of the blessings of the Covenant but onely as the Socinians to declare and confirm to us That we may believe that God of his own meer good will without expecting any satisfaction will do all this good for us for if it be a good consequence We are in Covenant before we believe because the Covenant promiseth to give us Faith Then is this also a good consequence We are in covenant before the death of Christ because the Covenant promiseth to give Christ to death And what answer Mr. Eyre will give to avoid this consequence for I presume he will not grant it and to defend his position that we are in Covenant with God upon the death of Christ and not before notwithstanding the Covenant Promise to give Christ the same Answer will serve my turn for the vindication of my Assertion That we are in Covenant with God upon believing and not before notwithstanding the same Covenant promise Faith 2. But upon a most serious perusual of this Text I finde it so contradictory to Mr. Eyr's purpose that I cannot but wonder what he means to shelter his Opinion under the protection of it If we read the words in Heb. 8. 10. or Jer. 31. 33. and
compare them with other places of Scripture we shall finde three things of distinct consideration the conclusion of which is the only support of this feeble Argument 1. There is the matter and blessings of the Covenant on Gods part I will be their God and they shall be my people In which words as many blessings temporal and eternal are promised so peculiarly pardon of sin mentioned in the words next following for which the Covenant on Mount Sinai to which this opposed made no provision and therefore when the Apostle mentioneth this Covenant again he leaves out those words I will be their God c. and takes notice of the great blessing contained in them namely Pardon of sin Heb. 10. 17. 2. There is expressed the bond and condition of it on our part and that is Faith which is confessedly signified in those words of putting Gods Laws in our mindes and writing them in our hearts In these two things is the tenor and formality of the New Covenant They that believe the Lord will be their God and they shall be his people and this is the Covenant so long before promised but most expresly Enacted in the days of the New Testament But thirdly There is also a Promise and Declaration that God will work this condition by which men shall have an interest in this Covenant and a right and title to the blessings thereof I will put my laws into their mindes that is I will give them Faith which Faith is not promised as an effect of the Covenant already made but as the means by which we are brought into Covenant and thereby invested in a right to all the blessings of it So that the words are in this sense This is the Covenant which I will make with the house of Israel when I shall write my Laws in their hearts I will be their God c. I do not herein give the Grammatical Translation of the words though if a man should read the words thus This is the Covenant which I will make saith the Lord that giveth his Laws into their mindes and writeth them in their heart c. he would be so far from offering violence either to the Greek Translation of the LXX which the Apostle follows or to the Hebrew Text in the Prophet as that he might justifie it by many examples But the matter is of no consequence at all to either side You see the sense which I give of the words And that this is the true sense of the place is most evident if we compare it with other Scriptures where this Covenant is mentioned For example Jer. 24. 7. I will give them an heart to know me that I am the Lord and they shall be my people and I will be their God for or when they shall return unto me with their whole heart where we have the very same Arguments as here viz. The blessings promised I will be their God The condition on the peoples part which is their returning with their whole heart and the cause of this return I will give them an heart The Apostle is yet more distinct Heb. 10. 14 15 16 17. He proves that Christ hath for ever perfected them that are sanctified whereof saith he the holy Ghost is a witness to us for after that he had said before This is the Covenant that I will make with them I will put my laws into their heart And their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more Before which last words must be repeated these Then he saith or Then it followeth and so the whole sentence runneth thus For after he had said before I will put my laws into their hearts then he saith Their sins and their iniquities I wil remember no more which clause as is already observed is one of the special and noble blessings contained in that general promise I will be their God and they shall be my people from which distribution of the words of the Covenant we may as before observe 1. Where begins the grand promise of the Covenant to wit in those words I will be their God and they shall be my people 2. The Qualification of the persons to whom this promise is made They are such in whose hearts Gods Laws are written that is such as believe 3. The efficient cause of this their Faith and that is God himself I will write my laws in their hearts The same Covenant is delivered in other terms in Scripture in all which the giving of the first Grace is promised not as a part of the Covenant but as the means and qualification on mans part for his entrance into Covenant as Ezek. 11. 19 20. I will put a new spirit within them that they may walk in my statutes and do them and they shall be my people and I will be their God which is the sum of the Covenant on Gods part so in Ezek. 36. 25 26 27 28. Again the Lord promiseth That he will cleanse and purifie them and so they shall be his people and he will be their God Ezek. 37. 23. which is the grand promise of the New Testament as the context makes it manifest And after he had promised that they should walk in his judgements and observe in his statutes it follows Moreover I will make a Covenant of peace with them it shall be an everlasting Covenant which in sum is this I will be their God and they shall be my people verse 24. 26 27. The premises being considered it is an easie matter to take the elevation of all the strength which our opponents can gather out of this Text If they will argue rightly they must cast their Argument into some such form as this They concerning whom God hath promised that he will give them Faith they are in Covenant before they believe But concerning the elect God hath promised that he will give them Faith Ergo. Here the major is utterly untrue for the promise of Faith which in reference to us is rather a Declaration de futuro of what God will do then a promise is the promise of the condition by which we are brought into Covenant and therefore though God hath declared that he will give Faith it will by no means follow that we are in Covenant before Faith But let them frame their Argument how they please it concerns not me to be solicitous about that I shall advance one Argument against them from this their place of refuge and pass on If God be not the God of any nor they his people before they believe then none are in Covenant with God before they believe But God is not the God of any before they believe Ergo. For the proposition he is destitute of common sense that shall deny it The being of the Covenant consists in that properly which God hath in us and we in him The Assumption is proved thus If God promise to give Faith that we may be his people and he our God then till that Faith
be given he is not our God nor we his people for it is in vain for God to give Faith for an end which may be well enough attained without Faith But God promiseth to give Faith that he may be our God and we his people Jer. 31. 33. Heb. 8. 10. Ezek. 11. 19 20. and 36. 25 26 27 28. 37. 23 24 26 27. besides multitudes of other Scriptures I have onely one observation to adde which the most learned amongst the Jewish and Christian Writers do often take notice of and that is this That God is never said to be our God in reference to his giving of the first grace but onely in reference to the blessings which he promiseth to them that have Faith Heb. 11. 16. He is not our God that he may give us Faith but is every where said to give us Faith that he may be our God In times past you were not a people but are now the people of God 1 Pet. 2. 10. And now I might spare the pains of further proof of the position last defended a Viz. That we are in not Covenant before Faith yet to the Scriptures already advanced let me adde a few more Isa 55. 3. Come unto me that is Believe in me John 6. 35. and I will make an everlasting Covenant with you 2. The voice of the Gospel which is the Covenant of Grace is every where Believe in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved in opposition to the Covenant of Works which saith Do this and live Rom. 10. 5. 6. 9. This is the Covenant whereof Christ is Mediator Heb. 9. 15. That they that are called unto Faith shall receive the promise of the eternal inheritance 3. The Covenant of Grace is preached to every man and every man called upon to fulfil the conditions of it that he may receive the blessings of it which condition is Faith Heb. 4. 1 2 10. Is there an absolute promise made to every man that God will give him grace or is it sense to exhort men to take hold of Gods Covenant as the phrase is Isa 66. 4 6. or to enter into Covenant with God if the Covenant be onely an absolute promise on Gods part or to exhort men to be stedfast in the Covenant of God to hold fast the faith and their confidence in Christ as the Scriptures are wont to do Heb. 3. 12 13 14. and 10. 23. or to accuse and blame and damn men for unbelief and rejecting of the Gospel Was it ever known that men should be counted worthy of death for not being the objects of an absolute promise 4. If the Covenant of grace be an absolute promise then no men in the world but wicked ungodly men are in covenant with God When a covenant is fulfilled it ceaseth to be any more a covenant In this life we are properly said to be in covenant with God when we shall be perfected in glory in the heavenly kingdom we cannot properly be said to be in covenant Now absolute promises of grace are made onely to wicked men when grace is given them then is the covenant so far forth fulfilled and so far forth they cease to be in covenant and so none but wicked men shall be perfectly in covenant with God But it is beside my purpose work to follow this pursuit any further Thus then you have with advantage the copy of the Sermon you have often desired to which though it is likely somthing is or will be said which at this distance I am never like to hear of yet sure I am that nothing can be answered consistent with the truth of Scriptures I am sorry for the breaches that are amongst you for the grief of the godly and the hardning of multitudes to their own destruction The God and Father of the Lord Jesus restore you to peace and quiet that spirit of Division that is gone abroad amongst you to his Grace I commend you rest Imprimatur Edm. Calamy May 26. 1652. Yours in the nearest bonds Benj Woodbridge FINIS