12th ver of that Chapter to the end of it is evidently to prove these two things First That as sin came first into the world by Adam's disobedience and death by sin and did not only seize on him but descended upon all his Posterity even upon them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression that is against a Law promulgated as he did he begetting them in his image after his Fall in his apostate state and not in his innocncy So from Christs obedience and satisfaction for sin came righteousness life and salvation In three things the Apostle makes the Feadship of Adam and that of Christ to run parallel First As Adam had a publick Station and stood so related to others that he had power to involve them in his own condition So had Christ Secondly the Effect of Adams sin was Vniversal came upon all The Effect of Christs obedience is so comes upon all that is both upon Jews and Gentiles without distinction which is the grand point the Apostle is all along making good Thirdly the first Adam by his disobedience was the general Author of death Christ the second Adam by obedience is the Great Introducer of life And secondly That there is not and exact equality and even proportion between the Headship of Christ and the Headship of Adam So the Apostle tells us in the 15 and 16 ver But not as the offence so also is the free gift For if through the offence of One Many be dead much more the grace of God and the gift by grace by one man Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many And not as it was by one that sinned so is the gift I or the judgment was by one to condemnation but the free gift is of many offences unto Justification The Advantage lyes much on Christs side in the comparison and that in three respects First Christs spiritual seed Believers are not so like him in degrees of holiness as Adams natural posterity are like him in degrees of sin And yet Life reignes as triumphantly amongst them as Death did over the posterity of Adam Secondly it was one sin of Adam that introduced Death But Christs obedience and the gift brought in by him was not upon the occasion of that or any other one sin but of many is the abundance of grace and procures forgiveness not only for that sin but for all other sins whatsoever that have ensued thereupon And thirdly there is a disparity between Adam and Christ in this and the advantage lyes much on Christs side That one sin one act of disobedience was enough to condemn But more the one act of obedience was requisite to procure our pardon And so although Christ do not save by his obedience so many as Adam condemned by his disobedience yet the second Adam is much more potent then the first because there is much more efficacy required in the Saving of One then there was in the Condemning of Many As the restoring of One dead to life is much harder then the destroying of the lives of many Now How by one mans disobedience were many made sinners Why Adam who had all mankind vertually in himself turning a Rebel and an Apostate his natural state was thereby changed his nature was attainted and became sinful and so fell under the sentence of death and that was included in the penalty threatned In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye Thy Natural state shall be changed and subjected to death And this falling out before he had propagated any of his kind he begat all his posterity in the same sinful Mortal state with himself So the Apostle tells us that in Adam all dye That is he becoming Mortal all were so propagated and Death reigned upon that account So on the contrary by one mans â—â—â—obedience many are made righteous As all meer men sinned in Adam being all in him and undergo the Effects of that sin So all Believers have virtually satisfied for sin in Christ By Christs obedience and satisfaction we come to be pardoned accounted of as righteous and saved But still 't is as an effect of Christs obedience that we come to be made righteous for the Apostle does not say In one mans obedience many shall be made righteous but By one mans obedience as a consequent and Effect of it many shall be made righteous As the effect of one mans disobedience many come to be shapen in iniquity and brought forth in a sinful condemned nature so as by the Effect of one mans obedience many come to be new born and brought forth in a righteous and a saving sfate A third Text insisted on is that in the 3d. chap. to the Philip. ver 9. And be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith To this Text a short Answer will suffice No more is requisite then to read from the 4. v. where the Apostle is discoursing of his Attainments under the Law Though I might sayes he have confidence also in the flesh if any other man thinketh he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh I more circumcised the eighth day c. and so he goes on And in the 7th ver But what things were gain to me those I counted loss for Christ yea doubtless I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith By which it is as plain as words can make it That the righteousness he desires Not to be found in was his own as he was a Jew and a Pharisee And to be found in Christ was no more then to be found ingraffed by Faith into the Christian Church to be found in that righteousness which is of God by faith which is the Gospel-righteousness No sober minded man can imagine the Apostle did not desire to be found in Gospel-righteousness or that by his own righteousness he meant that For 't is that alone can intitle us to the benefits of Christs righteousness And he himself every where so earnestly presseth men to strive for it as indispensably necessary to salvation and rejoyeeth in it telling us what comfort he had took to conling sider that he had fought a good fight had finished his course had kept the faith and that as a reward of so doing a crown of life was laid up for him in Heaven Nor is there any one passage of St. Pauls Epistles against works but 't is very plain from the context he intends the works of the Law and no other For as he opposeth faith to works so he also opposeth faith with Gospel-obedience
act accordingly that is to pursue the Ends of that Faith in all such acts of obedience as are subsequently required of us And this God sees virtually contained in the first Act of true Faith and the seeds of all future sincere persevering obedience therein And upon that account accepts thereof at first as the performance of the whole condition required by the Gospel legally to intitle us to the priviledge of a Justified state SECT V. ANd now the last thing proposed to be inquired after How and upon what terms we come to arrive at the benefits of a Justified state having been thus resolved that we arrive thereunto by coming up to the terms proposed by the Gospel and performing the condition therein required which is briefly comprized by our Saviour in Believing It will turn much to our account in this present Discussion to inquire with some farther particularity what is intended and comprehended therein And of that we may be much informed by the consideration of these three things First The way and method that God takes to justifie a sinner being originated in the depths of his infinite Counsels no way ever to be found out or discovered but by Revelation a great mystery hid from ages and a thing very incredible to a carnal mind and no way suited to the corrupt Reasonings of Flesh and Blood God expects in the first place that we should fully credit it and firmly give our assent to its veracity And this is in it self a very Righteous Act and so accounted of God firmly to believe him in what he reveals to us And herein the faith of the Gospel and that of Abraham in whose steps we are bid to tread do perfectly resemble each other For he believed God about diverse things in their own nature very hard to be credited He staggred not through unbelief but hoped against hope and still relyed upon Gods veracity and all-sufficiency Secondly God requires of us That he having revealed from Heaven such a glorious and extraordinary way of Justification and Salvation so far out of our own compass and span as is the sending of his Son to assume our nature and in that nature to perfect and compleat all that concern'd our present und future welfare He expects upon this that we should adore this Revelation bow before it with the greatest acknowledgments we are capable of making rely upon it acquiesce in it and be perfectly silenced to all attempts our own Wisdom can suggest to us about this matter And herein the faith of the Gospel answers punctually to that of Abraham For he wholly quitted all those methods carnal and corrupted reason would have directed him to He left his Country and his fathers house and went he knew not whither In a word he forsook the conduct of his own wisdom Believed whatever God told him Did all he bad him and Went whithersoever he called him whatever Difficulties appeared to himself and whatever Censures he lay exposed to from others in his so doing Thirdly God and the Mediator require of us that we should become Obedient to a New Recovering Law of Grace as the condition of our Pardon and Justification In a word That we should subject our selves to all the precepts of the Gospel For Christ as Mediator erects a Kingdom His exaltation is to be a Prince as well as a Saviour a Prince in being a Saviour and whosoever will be saved by him must become one of his Subjects must submit to the regiment of his Kingdom and subject himself to his Laws And herein the faith of Abraham and the faith of every Believer answer one to another as face answereth face in a glass For Abrahams Justification was upon performance of the terms and condition of the New Covenant The Apostle proves he was justified by faith which was to be justified upon the terms of another Covenant and not that of the Law For the law is not of faith nor faith of the Law there was no relation at all between faith and law the law made no promise to faith the promises of the law were to perfect obedience And as the Apostle with convincing evidence urgeth against the Jews Abraham was justified by a faith he had before he was circumcised or had any thing to do with the Law And that faith of Abraham was more then a bare fruitless assent to what God revealed to him 'T was such a faith as put him upon Action and approved its own truth by a suitable obedience And of this we are sufficiently informed by the Story it self in Genesis and by St. James his Comment upon it Some things there are to be remarked in this Disposal of God that highly exalt his Wisdom Holiness and Justice And some things that to a very stupendious degree do magnisie his Mercy First How is the Wisdom Holiness and Justice of God made very transparent by such a dispensing Pardon and Justification as this How suitable is this method to himself He forgives not as the Greatest of men often do and think it an effect of the most supream soveraignty so to do as if in forgiveness nothing were to be done but singly to exercise an act of soveraignty But he forgives like the Lord our Maker That eternal Jehovah who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working with whom are inherent infinite Attributes none of which in the least can be Denyed or in the least Oppose or Contradict each other He proceeds in all he does in methods chalk'd out by his infinite Wisdom wherein they are all attempered together and do after an admirable manner harmonize each with other He annexeth such conditions to his forgiveness as no way lessen the grace and bounty of it and yet at the same time record his immutable holiness and justice Secondly The greatest righteousness that ever was extant the holyest state of man that he is capable of in his lapsed condition is introduced by the gospel and the precepts thereof and the greatest homage from Earth to Heaven that can be And yet all flesh put to silence in the performance of it We stand justified at Gods Bar in a way of Gods providing and contriving and we perform the Condition required of us solely by the power of his grace freely conferred upon us The glory of all redounds to God alone No Reward can be of Debt 〈◊〉 for all the Rewards of the Gospel are but Gods gracious remunerations of his own gifts and graces Free grace and Divine bounty is the Root that bears all nor can there be any boasting against that Root The holiest man that lives upon earth has the greatest occasion as having received most to abase himself and lie lowest in the dust before God in the Sense thereof in his best performances Thirdly By this method of forgiving these two great Ends are attained First Gods solemn hatred and dislike of sin is made very evident He save no man in his sin but from his sin Whom he
One being a voluntary act of Grace the other a necessary effect of Justice will not at all reach this case supposing it to be true For a sinners Justification results not from free and absolute Pardon nor consists in it but a sinner is pardoned and justified in a way judicial in pursuance of a Law by pleading an ample satisfaction made The greatest exercise of favour in such a case seems to lye in the acceptance of the satisfaction Now God who is the Party offended and the Judge declaring himself to be abundantly satisfied concerning the sins of the world by what Christ has suffered and done and it being perhaps highly requisite the Nature of Christs satisfaction considered in point of Justice too that he should so be the Pardon and Justification of a sinner are eminent effects of his Justice as well as of his Grace and Mercy And it becomes a Righteous thing now with God to pardon and justifie an offender so qualified in Judgement For it must be consider'd that although the Ground and Foundation of our Salvation and the whole of it in its contriving and effecting is nothing else but free and absolute grace and Divine goodness yet in such a Method and after such a Manner is Grace dispenced that in every Step that is taken toward the Salvation of a sinner God appears Righteous as well as Gracious and Justice and Mercy do kiss each other But still the Justification of such a one must exist in his Pardon by which he obtaines a Legal Discharge from all obligation to Punishment stands rectus in Curia no charge from the Law can be brought against him and he is upon even terms in the eye of the Law with those who never offended Nor can it be otherwise For no satisfaction be it never so Great can put an Offender out of need of forgiveness nor can it operate farther then to obtain forgiveness and so free him from condemnation and constitute him judicially righteous 'T is true that this is not such a Justification as an innocent person obtains in Judgment But 't is such a one as an offender is only capable of and has all in the effects and advantages that the other has and may be as truly and properly termed Justification And whoever denyes it makes the Justification of an offender utterly Impracticable and Impossible SECT II. ANd thus I have gone through the first Promise I obliged my self to which was to give an account of what is meant in Scripture by Justification We are not Justified as righteous and innocent persons by having Christs righteousness personally imputed to us as our own and we accounted in Judgment to have done what He did and acquitted as sinless thereupon Such apprehensions are vain and have no bottom in Scripture But we are Justified as in indeed and in truth we are as Sinners that is By pleading ample Satisfaction made for our sins in Christ and our own performance of that Gospel-condition which God has made necessary to our participation of the Benefits of it Upon which Plea God is graciously pleased judicially to pardon our sins to account of us as Righteous thereupon and to deal with us accordingly that is Legally to intitle us to all the grace and glory promised in the Gospel Divers Objections are raised against these Conceptions of Justification the value whereof seems to me to result rather from the Authors of them sundry Learned and Worthy men then from any weight in themselves The most Material are these three First It is Objected That when the Scripture describes Justification by Forgiveness of sin it speaks Synecdochically and expresseth the Whole by a Part. So in the 4th to the Rom. and other Texts And that Text Rom. 4. v. 25. is much insisted on to prove that Justification implyes more then Forgivenness of sin This Objection it will be acknowledged can be of no force unless it be proved that the Scripture does in other places ascribe some other distinct parts to Justification There can he but one more with any colour pretended and that is Adjudging Righteous upon the score of some righteousness Now it has been before proved That Pardoning of sin upon Christs satisfaction contains in it imputing righteousness without works and that in the Apostles sense they are all one When we are told in some Texts that we are justified by Christ in others That we obtain forgiveness of sin by Christ and in others That we are made righteous by Christ By an impartial comparing the Scripture with it selt it appears that one and the same thing is intended For whoever upon the performance of the Gospel-condition is legally Interested in Christs satisfaction and thereupon actually Pardoned is also thereby Justified and adjudged to be Righteous by the order and appointment of God in that case and in this the Scripture is every where very positive and plain That when the Scripture describes Justification by Forgiveness of sin it describes it Synecdochically expressing the whole by a part there is no good reason at all to believe but quite the contrary That it describes it comprehensively For it appears by Scripture-evidence that the whole form of Justification is compriz'd therein and the Scripture describes it most generally by pardon of sin and most fully in those places where it treats most largely and expressly of it In the forementioned 4th chap. to the Rom. 't will appear very plain to any impartial Reader That the Apostle there without any Synecdoche describes Justification in its full latitude if we consider these things First that he there fully and compleatly sets out the Justification of Abraham who in the manner of his Justification was to be the great pattern of Justification to all succeeding ages and the whole business of Gospel-Justification was compriz'd in the way and manner of his Justification Secondly he there states and determines the Grand and Deepest point about Justification whether it be by faith or works Now if he had not described it in its full extent and latitude and taken in the whole of Justification in that Quotation out of David by which he proves 't is not by works but by free forgiveness his Reasoning had not been Cogent For the Jews might well have replyed you speak but of one part of Justification and so conclude not about the whole That part indeed you prove to consist in the forgiveness of sin in the way of saith but it appears not but that there may be other parts also in Justification and they may result from works And so a man may be in part justified by free forgiveness and grace and in part by works Thirdly the Apostle very plainly makes the blessedness that David describes which in the blessedness of pardon and not imputing iniquity to be the blessedness of Justification For in the 9th ver Cometh this blessedness upon the circumcision only or upon the uncircumcision also that is the blessedness of Justification by faith which
justifies he sanctifies No mans sin is so forgiven as that the least allowance is vouchsafed to it How impossible were if for God openly to tolerate a Rebellion as all sin is for 't is a disobedience to some Law against himself How inconsistent were it with his Holiness and his Soveraignty By the Conditions God has annexed to his Forgiveness 't will evidently appear before men and Angels what a Contrariety and Opposition there is in God to all sin resulting from the essential Purity of his nature And that none but such as are sanctified can be accepted of him Secondly By the performance of these conditions we are made meet for Glory 't is approaching Heaven gradually 'T is impossible without holiness to see God And 't is our great happiness that so great a stress is laid upon our attaining to it That we are under so solemn an obligement to our greatest Interest Doubtless the most effectual way to introduce sanctity was to make it conditionally necessary to our Justification and to oblige us to forsake our sins upon our utmost Peril and greatest Penalty Some things there are also observable in this Gospel method of Pardon by which the grace and mercy of God are made greatly evident and appear in their highest elevation First The Precepts of this new recovering Law of Grace the commands of the Gospel our obedience to which is made conditionally necessary to a justified state They are such as appear to be wholly calculated for our advantage and welfare The yoke of Christ 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a gracious benigne bountiful yoke and his burden is a light burden His commands are in no sort Grievous to any man truly and rationally informed of his own welfare God has not arbitrarily commanded us as he might do for we owe him all conceivable subjection but singly oblig'd us to such precepts as are in their own nature absolutely necessary to our present and future welfare In short he has only bid us live a sober righteous religious life here such as is rationally Best for our selves and others and be gradually preparing for those Eternal fruitions that are to come Whoever comes short of Heaven by not performing the Gospel-condition denyes his own present as well as future Interest And 't will be a black Reflection hereafter to consider That whatever brought us to a state of Misery in the Next world made us also unhappy in This That God requited no more of us to qualifie us for future Felicity Then that we would live wisely and profitably to our selves and usefully to others here Secondly Whatever is by the Gospel Conditionally required of us is all freely and fully given to us Faith at first and every other Grace in pursuance of it is the gift of God Whatever we are commanded to do as a peculiar and principle effect of Christs purchase by the Law of Grace we receive a power to perform The Holy Ghost upon Christs ascension was eminently sent from Heaven for that very purpose and will not cease in his operations till all the members of Christs Body are fully inabled to perform the Whole of what the Gospel requires at their hands This is an apparent Effect of the highest Grace and Goodness and renders Christ as free a Gift to the World as if no Condition had been annexed to the proposal of him since the power of performing all is Freely conferred upon us when from the Greatness Holiness and Justice of God and our own present and future welfare it became necessary that such holy Conditions there should be God in his boundless Grace undertakes in Christ and obliges himself by his Covenant to furnish us with ability for their utmost performance By which method the whole will appear perfectly made up of free grace The Satisfaction contriv'd provided accepted and the condition performed And every saved person will appear righteous both before God and the world and 't will be very apparently a righteous thing with God to bring such unto Glory who have Christs righteoussness by way of satisfaction and compensation to answer for them with respect to the Law and their own faith and sincere though imperfect obedience to answer the terms of the Gospel Thirdly This gracious recovering Law of the Mediator 'T is not given as God gave the first Law to Adam and as he after gave the Law upon Mount Sinai requiring exact and punctual obedience in every circumstance of it upon the greatest penalty But 't is given from the hand of a Mediator upon far more gentle and mitigated terms 'T is required by it that we be deeply and thoroughly sensible of the ill of our former state and conversation while without God and Christ in the world and strangers to this grace of Gospel and of our utter inability to procure acceptance with God any other way be rationally satisfied of the excellency of that life the Gospel calls us unto of the glorious reward that will ensue And so make a solemn choice of it to our selves and sincerely resolve as men of Truth and Fidelity ought strenuously to endeavour to attain to it to live in the practice of every duty the Gospel annexes to our state and condition and to depart from every Gospel-sin This conviction and resolution the Gospel makes indispensibly necessary and 't is compriz'd in all sincere and true Faith But 't is thus qualified for the advantage of an offender That that which constitutes and preserves the union between Christ and a Believer the thred that tyes a man to Christ as I may so express it in the whole performance of the Gospel-condition is sincerity of Intention and endeavour and what could the Great God require and accept less from the hand of an Apostate Creature and not perfection of Action And this sincerity too reckon'd as much to our advantage as possible may be That is Whatever can upon the utmost allowances be truly so called shall be so reputed And he that can enter a just claim to the lowest degree of sincerity that is when all the Infirmities that can accompany sincerity and not overwhelm and extinguish it that can consist with its denomination so to be are admitted shall yet be accounted a sincere man and numbred amongst those that are truly so Till this thred of sincerity be utterly broke the union between Christ and a Believer is never Dissolved but he still remains in a justified state before God Though a man sin often through infirmity and strength of Temptation and the best men so sin very often if his Resolution abide firm and sincere for obedience to Christ and holy living he is still reckoned to perform the Gospel-condition and abide in a justified state Such a man is in the first Latitude of Gospel-forgiveness But if a man through the power and prevalency of his Lusts and the violent impetuous assaults of temptation have an invasion made upon his sincerity that is that a man often fails
in point of sincerity sins against his own Light and his Resolutions and Knowledge repeats this again and again does it often for such is mans apostate state by his Fall so fertile is it of all sort of sin that if Christ in this new Law had not considered our frame and remembred with infinite compassion what we are and so dealt with us we had still come short of happiness yet if such a man by the strength and efficacy of grace renew himself again by continued acts of Repentance revive and re-inforce his resolutions return back to his first stated sincerity be in his rational and most Deliberate choice still for Christ and Obedience to his Laws for Christ will not sinally judge of us by our passionate choice but by our rational choice and so carry himself upon the whole matter that Christ is not deposed his soul but still continues his Government there if Satan and the Flesh prevail but by sits and are still dispossessed by an habitual sincerity If a man be always either at the present or upon second and after reviews full of deep and heart-affecting trouble and sorrow whenever he so miscarryes and the fixed state acquiescency and rest of his soul is in living to Christ in a sincere obedience to his Laws and his rational and most undisturbed choice is to do in short if he never comes to be bowed down and subjected to pregnant hypocrisy even in all cases of this nature the Scripture gives us good ground to believe that Christ and his saving benefits are to be had Justification before God attained and future glory possessed upon such gracious principles of condescention is this New Law of the Gospel erected Though it must be withall acknowledged that sins of this nature sins tinctur'd with insincerity are of all under the Gospel the most dangerous border most upon a breach of the Condition required are the most destructive to our present Peace and Comfort the most productive of any of temporal and spiritual Judgements in this life And when they arrive to such a degree that the whole of a mans condition truly and evenly considered for we shall all be weighed in the perfect Ballance of Gods righteous judgement they turn the Scale against sincerity are the more Predominant and Prevailing part they are perfectly Ruinous a Non-performance of the Gospel-condition is returned upon us and no such man will ever have the advantages of Christs satisfaction accounted to him let him have made never so great a progress in all other Gospel attainments Two Fundamental Failures there are in reference to the Conditions required by the Gospel upon the performance of which begun and continued we come to be primarily and finally justified First When men wholly reject the Gospel or with a careless unconcern'd unactive Indifferency which comes in the effects all to one barely assent to its veracity but never prosecute the Ends of it And secondly when men prove false and perfidious in that subjection and obedience Christ requires from them in a Christian course Christ will answer for no man that will not receive him when offer'd as worthy of all acceptation and as an inestimable Jewel of an Infinite value or that does not sincerely intend to obey his Laws and act suitably to such an intention 'T were a mean and unworthy conception of our Saviour to imagine he should account the Precious Effects of his most Precious Blood to any man that would not be throughly sensible of that sin and rebellion against the Highest Soveraign that occasioned his sufferings and to expiate which he became a sin offering and was sacrificed and in the most sincere and solemn manner resolve for the future as the worst of all ills the Wound of Life the Sting of Death and tormenting Plague to Eternity to avoid it And especially that should pretend to do and yet lye against the Holy Ghost and prove false in so gracious a Covenant In a word Nothing keeps men from the good things of the Gospel the blessedness of a justified state but a positive Refusal of Christ or a sloathful careless unconcern'd neglect of him which comes in effect all to one or a prevailing unconquered falseness in the course of Gospel-obedience and that Conformity to his Laws which Christ requires from us And who can imagine that such a Saviour as our Lord is who is God and Man after a stupendious manner united should be provided by the Almighty for any persons in either respect so qualified SECT VI. FRom the consideration of all these things divers material Questions do naturally result To which a due Answer ought to be given First This Question will be asked Does not this diminish the Grace of the Gospel and lessen the free donation of Christ to say he is offer'd conditionally and that no man can be justified by him but upon terms to be perform'd by himself Answ If it appear in truth so to be that no man can be saved by Christ nor be said in the Gospel-Sense to love him that does not keep his Commands if we go further in this matter then to those Limitations the Gospel evidently puts upon it self then this Objection ought not to be made For Gods pleasure is the rule of his own Grace That the Gospel is Conditional is apparent beyond denyal If we live after the flesh we are told we shall certainly dye and if we mortifie the deeds of the body we shall live If we overcome we shall have the Crown if we do not we shall lose the Reward And If we faint we are told we shall not reap 'T is he that holds out to the End in a Christian course that shall be saved And is not this all Conditional And this Conditionality of the Gospel the offer of Christ upon terms does no way Extenuate the grace and mercy of God in the free donation of Christ We are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ though we are justified conditionally by faith and that Faith includes all Gospel-obedience and the whole duty of a Christian Our Salvation is intirely purchased by Christs blood and an ability to perform every Condition required of us is purchased for us and by him freely conferr'd upon us So that he as a gift of inestimable value and bounty from Heaven is a spring of all Grace and freely supplies us with what ever we stand in need of And the proposal of him to the world upon terms and conditions is but that method the only wise God has seen fit to make use of in the accomplishment of so glorious a work of Grace and so free a Redemption as that which tended most to his own glory and will appear at last to be eminently best for us For 't is but first to oblige us and then to inable us to be holy and like Himself in whose image lyes the perfection of all Happiness 'T is but to save us here in part and
that we might gradually possess that Gift of God which is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Quest Secondly By this Doctrine how can we ever come to know we are carefully and compleatly Justified till we have fully perform'd and accomplished all the conditions made requisite to a justified state That is how can we upon good ground be assured of our Justification till our faith and obedience be consummuated Which is not till we dye Answ Every man is then Actually justified according to the Gospel-Law and Compleatly so when he believes in the Lord Jesus Christ with all his heart Because no more is at the first required Legally to constitute a justified state But Justification is a continued act of God and the constant performance of all those duties which a sincere reception of Christ as he is offered in the Gospel implyes are indispensibly necessary to the continuance of it 'T is in this case as 't is in Marriage A Marriage is perfected by a mutual consent But the performance of all matrimonial duties is implyed in that consent The Marriage continues valid till somwhat be done as 't is very possible there may be that does vertually Null and Revoke such consent and what was implyed therein and does ex natura rei Dissolve the Vinculum matrimonij 'T is plain the Apostles did look upon such as declared a firm assent to the Gospel and a sincere and hearty reception of Christ as he is there proposed to be in Christ That is to be in a Justified saved state admitted them to all Gospel-priviledges and never esteemed them otherwise till by their Lives or Professions they contradicted and denyed what by such a faith and consent they had before affirmed and thereby Apostatized from it And of such tergiversation the Gospel every where warns men That they should take heed of an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God And St. Paul tells the Corinthians I am jealous over you sayes he with a godly jealousie for I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste Virgin to Christ But I fear least by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ Whoever avows the faith of the Gospel and a sincere closure with Christ upon the Terms thereof and does after fall into an open Rebellion against him and lives in an allowed disobedience to his Laws such a man is as the Apostle speaks of an Heretick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man condemned by himself For he that in his Baptism and at his first admission into the Christian-Church had made a solemn Profession of the true Christian Doctrine and did after degenerate into Corrupt and Heretical Opinions contrary and destructive to it passed sentence upon himself So He that declares to close with Christ as a Prince and a Saviour which supposeth a general submission to all the Laws of his Kingdom and shall after Indulge himself in a course of open disobedience and choose a continued practice of sin against that grand fundamental Law of Christ That he that names his name must depart from iniquity gives Judgment against himself in this case Disowns Christ and the Gospel Dissolves the Relation that seem'd to be between them and publickly retracts what he before obliged himself to So that a man is at the first actually and legally according to the tenor of the Gospel justified by a true and sincere Faith But a constant prosecution of such a faith in all its proper Ends and Tendencies by an universal submission to all the Laws of Christs Kingdom is of absolute necessity to our continuance in a Justified state Quest 3. Do not divers Scriptures in the New Testament seem to establish Justification solely upon believing and upon Faith only as an instrument receiving and no more in opposition to all sort of working Especially that Text Rom. 4.5 But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness Answ We are said to be justified in the New Testament by faith alone upon these three accounts First as faith intends the Gospel and the Principles of Christianity in opposition to the Law and the principles of Judaisme Secondly As 't is a comprehensive word for all that the Gospel requires at our hands For by Believing in Christ the Scripture intends such a closure with him as receives him in all his offices and sujects us to all those obligations which 〈◊〉 Prince and Saviour he thinks fit by the Gospel to lay upon us And upon that account to Believe and to obey are often in Scripture put one for the other promiscuously and so are unbelief and disobedience All obedience and subjection to Christ is originated in and flows from our Belief of that Revelation God makes to us of him and is naturally implyed and compriz'd in it And so it has by Gods appointment the precedence and preferrence of all other Graces in point of Justification and we do not find any other grace so related to Justification as this And upon that account it is that we are not said in Scripture to be justified by repentance or by love or any other single grace but only by Faith as comprehensive of all the rest And thirdly because we are actually brought into a justified state at first solely by Faith without the actual exercise of any other grace The very act of sincere believing by Gods peculiar and gracious ordination intitles us to Christ and all his Benefits And the reason of that Ordination is evidently this That who ever believes in Christ receives him as he is by God proposed and whoever does so obliges himself therey to all the duties of Christianity But upon no one of these accounts can Faith be said to justifi◠〈◊〉 barely as an Instrument but as 't is comprehensive and productive of all other Gospel-duties and by the subsequent performance of them Faith as St. James tells us is perfected 'T was the fear many good men had of interesting any Works or any thing of our own Justification and Ecclipsing free grace thereby that made them that they would neither allow Faith to be a condition nor a work When they ought to have considered that Gospel works are never opposed to Grace nor can any thing done by Divine assistance be so and when the Apostle opposeth Works to Grace he means such Works as are inconsistent with Grace and so justifie by their merit as to put us out of need of Grace and render it useless but invented that unscriptural notion of its instrumentality of no other use but to make way for metaphysical subtilties and to obscure a plain point when indeed Faith is both a work and a condition First 'T is a work so our Saviour himself calls it Joh. 6.29 This is the work of God that you believe Indeed 't is the chiefest part
of Evangelical obedience the greatest work the Gospel requires at our hands and that which produceth all other and 't is plainly made as such every where in Scripture the Condition of the New Law and that which it requires on our part to be performed in order to our Justification and Salvation And so the Apostle declares when he sayes We have believed that we might be justified That is We have performed the Condition required by the Gospel in order to Justification that so we might be justified thereby upon the terms thereof And for that reason as 't is the Condition of the New Law 't is accounted for Righteousness And so when God justified Abraham upon the terms of the New Covenant his Faith is said to be accounted for Righteousness because it was the performance of the Condition thereof And God was pleased to give an Instance in him what was to be the Condition of it which was a sincere Faith including a suitable obedience So far different was Abrahams Faith in its Nature and so far is all true Gospel-Faith from that Idea some men frame of it who ascribe no more to it then a Bare naked notional instrumentality Nor is there one Text in all the New Testament that excludes Gospel Works Evangelical obedience from being Conditionally necessary to our Justification and Salvation but they are universally made so as has been proved before For Whatever is requisite to constitute a man a good Christian is conditionally necessary to his Justification and no man can be interested in the Salvation purchased by Christ that does not subject himself to an universal obedience to all his Laws To distinguish as some do between Justification and Salvation and say that Gospel-works are necessary to the Latter but not to the Former is to distinguish where the Scripture makes no difference For The Apostles speak of a Justified person and a saved person as the same and of Justification and Salvation as so and they are both promiscuously promised to Believing St. James when he is discoursing of Justification asks this question can faith without works save you Where he means the same thing as if he had said can it justifie you Nor does it any more derogate from free Grace to make Gospel-works necessary to Justification then it does to ake them necessary to Salvation For they are both inseparably included each in other No man can be saved that is not Justified for whosoever is not justified at Gods Bar is condemned and whoever is justified is also glorified That Text of St. Paul Rom. 4. v. 5. duly considered does no way counenance any such Doctrine for the right understanding of which it wil be necessary to consider the whole Context In the first ver What shall we say then sayes the Apostle that Abraham our father from whom we derive our selves and who first received the Law of Circumcision the father of our Persons and of our Religion as pertaining to the flesh hath found 'T is an Interrogation importing a Negation Abraham did find nothing as pertaining to the flesh By flesh in Scripture besides the Corrupt acceptation it sometimes is meant the strength of natural abilities So Ismael is said to be born after the flesh that is by the meer and sole efficacy of nature in opposition to Isaacs being born 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the spirit and after the promise And sometimes by Flesh is meant the Legal external priviledges of the Jews So in the 3d. of the Philip. 't is taken St. Paul sayes there If any other man thinketh he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh I more Circumcised the eighty day c. But 't is plain what St. Paul means here by flesh For what he calls flesh in the first ver he calls works in the second For if Abraham were justified by works he hath whereof to glory but not before God If Abraham were justified by the worth and value of his own performances of any works wrought in his own Strength and by his own Ability he had whereof to Glory But not before God which last clause is a positive Negation and comes in as a Minor proposition And so the the Apostles Argument is thus framed If Abraham were justified by works he had whereof to glory before God For 't is faith only that excludes glorying before God his reward would have been a debt But he had not whereof to glory before God Therefore he was not justified by works And that this is his meaning in those words But not before God is plain Because in the next words he applies himself in the proof of it For what saith the Scripture sayes he It does not say that Abraham was justified before God by works but Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for Righteousness God out of favour and grace accepted his Faith for Righteousness which is implyed in the word Counted when he might justly have Refused so to do Abraham could not have claim'd it from any merit in strict rules of Justice Now to him that worketh in the 4th ver is the reward not reckoned of Grace but of Debt That is he that hath any thing due to his for what he has himself in his own strength done that Reward is a Debt and is not a reward of Grance And so if Abraham had been a man of such merits had done such works as would in their own nature have justified him and constituted him Righteous in the sight of God Gods justifying him and adjudging him righteous had been a debt due to him But Abraham was not so he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sinner and could claim nothing of Debt And God was pleased out of favour and grace to Reward Abrahams Faith and suitable obedience with an accounting it for Righteousness and to justifie him thereupon But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifyeth the ungodly his faith is accounted for Righteousness That is Dependeth not upon the strength of his own performances and such a sinless innocency as will in strict rules of Justice acquit him before God as Abraham did not but Believeth on God that justifies the ungodly That is a man that has not a Legal sinless perfection for that is meant by the ungodly his Faith is counted for Righteousness That is his Faith through Grace shall avail him as much to all intents and stand him in as much stead as a perfect sinless Righteousness would do Abrahm's Justification was not upon the terms of the Law or by perfection of Works which is inconsistent with Pardon for he was a great sinner and had lived for some time in Heathen Idolatry But he was justified upon the terms and conditions of another Covenant that is upon his believing God and reforming his Life was Pardoned and Accepted and his Faith and sincere reformation though the Grace of another Covenant was accounted to him for Righteousness Even so as the Idolatrous Gentiles though