and unsuited unto the Genius of the present Age. For they all of them arise from or lead unto the want of a due sence of the Nature and Guilt of sin as also of the Holiness and Righteousness of God with respect thereunto And when such principles as these do once grow prevalent in the minds of men they quickly grow careless negligent secure in sinning and End for the most part in Atheism or a great Indifferency as unto all Religion and all the Duties thereof CHAP. I. Justifying Faith the Causes Object and Nature of it declared THe means of Justification on our part is Faith That we are justified by Faith is so frequently and so expresly affirmed in the Scripture as that it cannot directly and in terms by any be denied For whereas some begin by an excess of partiality which controversial Engagements and Provocations do encline them unto to affirm that our Justification is more frequently ascribed unto other things Graces or Duties than unto Faith it is to be passed by in silence and not contended about But yet also the Explanation which some others make of this general concession That we are justified by Faith doth as fully overthrow what is affirmed therein as if it were in terms rejected And it would more advantage the understandings of men if it were plainly refused upon its first proposal than to be lead about in a maze of Words and Distinctions unto its real Exclusion as is done both by the Romanists and Socinians At present we may take the Proposition as granted and only enquire into the true genuine sense and meaning of it That which first occurs unto our Consideration is Faith and that which doth concern it may be reduced unto two Heads 1 Its Nature 2 Its Vse in our Justification Of the Nature of Faith in general of the especial Nature of justifying Faith of its Characteristical Distinctions from that which is called Faith but is not justifying so many Discourses divers of them the effects of sound Judgment and good Experience are already extant as it is altogether needless to engage at large into a farther discussion of them However something must be spoken to declare in what sense we understand these things what is that Faith which we ascribe our Justification unto and what is its Vse therein The Distinctions that are usually made concerning Faith as it is a word of various significations I shall wholly pretermit not only as obvious and known but as not belonging unto our present Argument That which we are concerned in is That in the Scripture there is mention made plainly of a twofold Faith whereby men believe the Gospel For there is a Faith whereby we are justified which he who hath shall be assuredly saved which purifieth the heart and worketh by Love And there is a Faith or Believing which doth nothing of all this which who hath and hath no more is not justified nor can be saved Wherefore every Faith whereby men are said to believe is not justifying Thus it is said of Simon the Magician that he believed Act. 8.13 When he was in the Gall of Bitterness and bond of Iniquity and therefore did not believe with that Faith which purifieth the Heart Act. 15.9 And that many believed on the name of Jesus when they saw the Miracles that he did but Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew what was in man Joh. 2.23 24. They did not believe on his Name as those do or with that kind of Faith who thereon receive power to become the Sons of God Joh. 1.12 And some when they hear the Word receive it with joy believing for a while but have no Root Luke 8.13 And Faith without a Root in the Heart will not justifie any For with the Heart Men believe unto Righteousness Rom. 10.10 So is it with them who shall cry Lord Lord at the last day we have prophesied in thy name whilst yet they were always workers of Iniquity Math. 7.22 23. This Faith is usually called Historical Faith But this Denomination is not taken from the Object of it as though it were only the History of the Scripture or the Historical things contained in it For it respects the whole Truth of the Word yea of the Promises of the Gospel as well as other things But it is so called from the nature of the Assent wherein it doth consist For it is such as we give unto Historical things that are credibly testified unto us And this Faith hath divers differences or degrees both in respect unto the Grounds or Reasons of it and also its Effects For as unto the first all Faith is an Assent upon Testimony and divine Faith is an Assent upon a divine Testimony According as this Testimony is received so are the Differences or Degrees of this Faith Some apprehend it on humane motives only and their credibility unto the Judgment of Reason and their Assent is a meer natural Act of their Understanding which is the lowest degree of this Historical Faith Some have their minds enabled unto it by spiritual Illumination making a discovery of the Evidences of Divine Truth whereon it is to be believed the Assent they give hereon is more firm and operative than that of the former sort Again It hath its Differences or Degrees with respect unto its Effects With some it doth no way or very little influence the Will or the Affections or work any Change in the lives of men So is it with them that profess they believe the Gospel and yet live in all manner of sins In this Degree it is called by the Apostle James a dead Faith and compared unto a dead Carkass without life or motion and is an Assent of the very same nature and kind with that which Devils are compelled to give And this Faith abounds in the World With others it hath an effectual work upon the Affections and that in many degrees also represented in the several sorts of Ground whereinto the Seed of the Word is cast and produceth many effects in their lives In the utmost improvement of it both as to the Evidence it proceeds from and the Effects it produceth it is usually called temporary Faith for it is neither permanent against all oppositions nor will bring any unto Eternal Rest. The name is taken from that Expression of our Saviour concerning him who believeth with this Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Math. 13.21 This Faith I grant to be true in its kind and not meerly to be equivocally so called it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is so as unto the general nature of Faith but of the same special nature with justifying Faith it is not Justifying Faith is not an higher or the highest degree of this Faith but is of another kind or nature Wherefore sundry things may be observed concerning this Faith in the utmost improvement of it unto our present purpose As 1. This Faith with all the effects of it men
Apostle infers v. 17. Even so Faith if it hath not Works is dead being alone For this was that which he undertook to prove not that we are not justified by Faith alone without Works before God but that the Faith which is alone without Works is dead useless and unprofitable Having given this first evidence unto the conclusion which in Thesi he designed to prove he reassumes the question and states it in Hypothesi so as to give it a more full demonstration v. 15. Yea a man may say thou hast Faith and I have Works shew me thy Faith without thy Works that is which is without Works or by thy Works and I will shew thee my Faith by my Works It is plain beyond denial that the Apostle doth here again propose his main question only on a supposition that there is a dead useless Faith which he had proved before For now all the enquiry remaining is how true Faith or that which is of the right Gospel kind may be shewed evidenced or demonstrated so as that their folly may appear who trust unto any other Faith whatever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Evidence or demonstate thy Faith to be true by the only means thereof which is works And therefore although he say thou hast Faith that is thou professest and boastest that thou hast that Faith whereby thou mayest be saved and I have Works he doth not say shew me thy Faith by thy Works and I will shew thee my Works by my Faith which the Antithesis would require but I will shew thee my Faith by my Works because the whole question was concerning the evidencing of Faith and not of Works That this Faith which cannot be evidenced by Works which is not fruitful in them but consists only in a bare assent unto the Truth of Divine Revelation is not the Faith that doth justifie or will save us he further proves in that it is no other but what the Devils themselves have and no man can think or hope to be saved by that which is common unto them with Devils and wherein they do much exceed them v. 11. Thou beliivest there is one God thou dost well the Devils also believe and tremble The belief of one God is not the whole of what the Devils believe but is singled out as the principal fundamental Truth and on the concession whereof an assent unto all Divine Revelation doth necessarily ensue And this is the second Argument whereby he proves an empty barren Faith to be dead and useless The second Confirmation being given unto his principal assertion He restates it in that way and under those terms wherein he designed it unto its last Confirmation But wilt thou know O vain man that Faith without Works is dead ver 20. And we may consider in the words 1 The person with whom he deals whose conviction he endeavoured him he calls a vain man not in general as every man living is altogether vanity but as one who in an especial manner is vainly puffed up in his own fleshly mind one that hath entertained vain Imaginations of being saved by an empty profession of the Gospel without any fruit of Obedience 2 That which he designs with respect unto this vain man is his conviction a conviction of that foolish and pernicious errour that he had imbibed wilt thou know O vain man 3 That which alone he designed to convince him of is that Faith without Works is dead that is the Faith which is without Works which is barren and unfruitful is dead and useless This is that alone and this is all that he undertakes to prove by his following Instances and Arguings neither do they prove any more To wrest his words to any other purpose when they are all proper and suited unto what he expresseth as his only design is to offer violence unto them This therefore he proves by the consideration of the Faith of Abraham ver 21. Was not Abraham our Father justified by Works when he had offered Isaac his Son upon the Altar Some things must be observed to clear the mind of the Apostle herein As 1 It is certain that Abraham was justified many years before the Work instanced in was performed For long before was that Testimony given concerning him he believed in the Lord and he counted it unto him for Righteousness and the imputation of Righteousness upon believing is all the Justification we enquire after or will contend about 2 It is certain that in the Relation of the Story here repeated by the Apostle there is not any one word spoken of Abrahams being then justified before God by that or any other Work whatever But 3 It is plain and evident that in the place related unto Abraham was declared to be justified by an open attestation unto his Faith and fear of God as sincere and that they had evidenced themselves so to be in the sight of God himself which God condescends to express by an assumption of humane affections Gen. 22.12 Now I know that thou fearest God seeing thou hast not withheld thy Son thine only Son from me That this is the Justification which the Apostle intends cannot be denied but out of love to strife And this was the manifestation and declaration of the Truth and Sincerity of his Faith whereby he was justified before God And hereby the Apostle directly and undeniably proves what he produceth this instance for namely that Faith without Works is dead 4 It is no less evident that the Apostle had not spoken any thing before as unto our Justification before God and the means thereof And is therefore absurdly imagined here to introduce it in the proof of what he had before asserted which it doth not prove at all 5 The only safe rule of interpreting the meaning of the Apostle next unto the scope and design of his present Discourse which he makes manifest in the reiterated proposition of it and the scope of the places matter of fact with its circumstances which he refers unto and takes his proof from and they were plainly these and no other Abraham had been long a justified believer for there were Thirty years or thereabout between the Testimony given thereunto Gen. 15. and the story of Sacrificing his Son related Gen. 22. All this while he walked with God and was upright in a course of holy fruitful Obedience Yet it pleased God to put his Faith after many others unto a new his greatest his last Trial. And it is the way of God in the Covenant of Grace to try the Faith of them that believe by such ways as seem meet unto him Hereby he manifests how precious it is the trial of Faith making it appear to be more precious than Gold 1 Pet. 1.7 and raiseth up Glory unto himself which is in the nature of Faith to give unto him Rom. 4.20 And this is the state of the case as proposed by the Apostle namely how it may be tried whether the Faith which men profess
the Work of the Devil by the suffering of the seed of the woman is proposed as the only Relief for sinners and only means of the Recovery of the favour of God It shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel Gen. 3.15 Abraham believed in the Lord and he counted it unto him for Righteousness Gen. 15.6 And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the Head of the live Goat and confess over him all the iniquities of the Children of Israel and all their Transgressions in all their sins putting them on the head of the Goat and the Goat shall bear upon him all their Iniquities unto a Land not inhabited Lev. 16.21 22. I will go in the strength of the Lord God I will make mention of thy Righteousness even of thine only Psal. 71.16 If thou Lord shouldst mark Iniquity O Lord who shall stand but there is forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared Psal. 130.3 4. Enter not into Judgment with thy Servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified Psal. 143.2 Behold he put no trust in his Servants and his Angels he charged with folly how much less on them that dwell in houses of Clay whose foundation is in the dust Job 4.18 19. Fury is not in me who would set the Briers and Thorns against me in battel I would go through them I would burn them together Or let him take hold of my strength that he may make peace with me and he shall make peace with me Isa. 27.4 5. Surely shall one say in the Lord have I Righteousness and strength in the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and Glory Isa. 45.24 25. All we like Sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the Iniquity of us all By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many for he shall bear their Iniquities Isa. 53.6 11. For this is his name whereby he shall be called the Lord our Righteousness Jer. 23.6 But we are all as an unclean thing and all our Righteousnesses are as filthy raggs Isa. 64.6 He shall finish the Transgression and make an End of sin and make Reconciliation for Iniquity and bring in Everlasting Righteousness Dan. 9.24 Vnto as many as received him he gave power to become the Sons of God even to them that believe in his name Joh. 1.12 For as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life chap. 3.14 15. see ver 16 17 18. Be it known therefore unto you Men and Brethren that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of Sins and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses Acts 13.38 39. That they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them that are sanctified by Faith that is in me chap. 26.18 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 at this time his Righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus Where then is Boasting it is excluded by what Law of Works nay but by the Law of Faith Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by Faith without the deeds of the Law Rom. 3.24 25 26 27 28. For if Abraham were justified by works he hath whereof to Glory but not before God For what saith the Scripture Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for Righteousness now to him that worketh is the Reward not reckoned of Grace but of Debt But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his Faith is counted for Righteousness Even as David also describeth the Blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth Righteousness without works saying Blessed are those whose Iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord will not impute sin Rom. 4.2 3 4 5 6 7 8. 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 which is by one man Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many And not as it was by one that sinned so is the Gift for the judgment was by one to Condemnation but the free Gift is of many offences unto Justification For if by one mans offence Death reigned by one much more they which receive abundance of Grace and of the Gift of Righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. Therefore as by the offence of one judgement came upon all men unto condemnation even so by the Righteousness of one the free Gift came upon all men unto Justification of life For as by one mans Disobedience many were made sinners so by the Obedience of one shall many be made righteous chap 5. 15 16 17 18 19. There is therefore no condemnation unto them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit For the Law of the spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death and what the Law could not do in that it 's weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh That the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us chap. 8. 1 2 3 4. For Christ is the End of the Law for Righteousness unto every one that believeth chap. 10.4 And if by Grace then it is no more of Works otherwise Grace is no more Grace but if it be of Works then it is no more Grace otherwise Works is no more Works chap. 11.6 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.21 Knowing that a man is not justified by the Works of the Law but by the Faith of Jesus Christ even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the Faith of Christ and not by the Works of the Law for by the Works of the Law shall no flesh be justified Gal. 2.16 But that no man is justified by the Law in the sight of God is evident For the just shall live by Faith and the Law is not of Faith but the man that doth them shall live in them Christ hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us chap. 3.11 12 13. For by Grace ye are saved through
Object of our Faith unto the Justification of Life Act. 2.39 Act. 26.6 Rom. 4.16 20. chap. 15.8 Gal. 3.16 18. Heb. 4.1 chap. 6.13 chap. 8.6 chap. 10.36 4. The End for which the Lord Christ in the Work of his Mediation is the Ordinance of God and as such proposed in the Promises of the Gospel namely the Recovery and Salvation of lost sinners belongs unto the Object of Faith as Justifying Hence the forgiveness of sin and Eternal Life are proposed in the Scripture as things that are to be believed unto Justification or as the Object of our Faith Math. 9.2 Act. 2.38 39. chap. 5.31 chap. 26.18 Rom. 3.25 chap. 4.7 8. Col. 2.13 Tit. 1.2 c. And whereas the Just is to live by his Faith and every one is to believe for himself or make an Application of the things believed unto his own behoof some from hence have affirmed the pardon of our own sins and our own Salvation to be the proper Object of Faith and indeed it doth belong thereunto when in the way and order of God and the Gospel we can attain unto it 1. Cor. 15.3 4. Gal. 2.20 Ephes. 1.6 7. Wherefore asserting the Lord Jesus Christ in the Work of his Mediation to be the Object of Faith unto Justification I include therein the Grace of God which is the Cause the pardon of sin which is the Effect and the Promises of the Gospel which are the means of communicating Christ and the benefit of his Mediation unto us And all these things are so united so intermixed in their mutual Relations and Respects so concatenated in the purpose of God and the Declaration made of his Will in the Gospel as that the Believing of any one of them doth virtually include the belief of the rest And by whom any one of them is disbelieved they frustrate and make void all the rest and so Faith it self The due Consideration of these things solveth all the Difficulties that arise about the nature of Faith either from the Scripture or from the Experience of them that believe with respect unto its Object Many things in the Scripture are we said to believe with it and by it and that unto Justification But two things are hence evident 1 That no one of them can be asserted to be the compleat adequate Object of our Faith 2 That none of them are so absolutely but as they relate unto the Lord Christ as the Ordinance of God for our Justification and Salvation And this answereth the Experience of all that do truly believe For these things being united and made inseparable in the constitution of God all of them are virtually included in every one of them 1 Some fix their Faith and Trust principally on the Grace Love and Mercy of God especially they did so under the Old Testament before the clear Revelation of Christ and his Mediation So did the Psalmist Psal. 130.34 Psal. 33.18 19. And the Publican Luke 18.13 And these are in places of the Scripture innumerable proposed as the Causes of our Justification See Rom. 3.24 Ephes. 2.4 5 6 7 8. Tit. 3.5 6 7. But this they do not absolutely but with respect unto the Redemption that is in the Blood of Christ Dan. 9.17 Nor doth the Scripture any where propose them unto us but under that consideration See Rom. 3.24 25. Ephes. 1.6 7 8. For this is the cause way and means of the communication of that Grace Love and Mercy unto us 2 Some place and fix them principally on the Lord Christ his Mediation and the Benefits thereof This the Apostle Paul proposeth frequently unto us in his own Example See Gal. 2.20 Phil. 3.8 9 10. But this they do not absolutely but with respect unto the Grace and Love of God whence it is that they are given and communicated unto us Rom. 8.32 Joh. 3.16 Ephes. 1.6 7 8. Nor are they otherwise any where proposed unto us in the Scripture as the Object of our Faith unto Justification 3 Some in a peculiar manner fix their Souls in Believing on the Promises And this is exemplified in the Instance of Abraham Gen. 15.16 Rom. 4.20 And so are they proposed in the Scripture as the Object of our Faith Act. 2.39 Rom. 4.16 Heb. 4.1 2. chap. 6.12 13. But this they do not meerly as they are Divine Revelations but as they contain and propose unto us the Lord Christ and the Benefits of his Mediation from the Grace Love and Mercy of God Hence the Apostle disputes at large in his Epistle unto the Galatians That if Justification be any way but by the Promise both the Grace of God and the death of Christ are evacuated and made of none effect And the Reason is because the Promise is nothing but the way and means of the Communication of them unto us 4 Some fix their Faith on the things themselves which they aim at namely the pardon of sin and Eternal Life And these also in the Scripture are proposed unto us as the Object of our Faith or that which we are to believe unto Justification Psal. 130.4 Act. 26.18 Tit. 1.2 But this is to be done in its proper order especially as unto the Application of them unto our own Souls For we are no where required to believe them or our own Interest in them but as they are effects of Grace and Love of God through Christ and his Mediation proposed in the Promises of the Gospel Wherefore the Belief of them is included in the Belief of these and is in order of nature antecedent thereunto And the Belief of the forgiveness of sins and Eternal Life without the due Exercise of Faith in those Causes of them is but Presumption I have therefore given the entire Object of Faith as Justifying or in its Work and Duty with respect unto our Justification in compliance with the Testimonies of the Scripture and the Experience of them that believe Allowing therefore their proper place unto the Promises and unto the Effect of all in the pardon of sins and Eternal Life that which I shall farther confirm is That the Lord Christ in the Work of his Mediation as the Ordinance of God for the Recovery and Salvation of lost sinners is the proper adequate Object of Justifying Faith And the true nature of Evangelical Faith consisteth in the Respect of the Heart which we shall immediately describe unto the Love Grace and Wisdom of God with the Mediation of Christ in his Obedience with the Sacrifice Satisfaction and Attonement for sin which he made by his Blood These things are impiously opposed by some as inconsistent For the second Head of the Socinian Impiety is That the Grace of God and Satisfaction of Christ are opposite and inconsistent so as that if we allow of the one we must deny the other But as these things are so proposed in the Scripture as that without granting them both neither can be believed so Faith which respects them as subordinate namely the Mediation of
23 24. 2. We suppose herein a sincere Assent unto all Divine Revelations whereof the Promises of Grace and Mercy by Christ are an especial part This Paul supposed in Agrippa when he would have won him over unto Faith in Christ Jesus King Agrippa believest thou the Prophets I know that thou believest Act. 26.27 And this Assent which respects the Promises of the Gospel not as they contain propose and exhibit the Lord Christ and the Benefits of his Mediation unto us but as Divine Revelations of infallible Truth is true and sincere in its kind as we described it before under the notion of Temporary Faith But as it proceeds no farther as it includes no Act of the Will or Heart it is not that Faiâ—h whereby we are Justified However it is required thereunto and is included therein 3. The proposal of the Gospel according unto the Mind of God is hereunto supposed That is that it be preached according unto Gods Appointment For not only the Gospel it self but the Dispensation or Preaching of it in the Ministry of the Church is ordinarily required unto Believing This the Apostle asserts and proves the necessity of it at large Rom. 10.11 12 13 14 15 16 17. Herein the Lord Christ and his Mediation with God the only way and means for the Justification and Salvation of lost convinced sinners as the product and effect of Divine Wisdom Love Grace and Righteousness is revealed declared proposed and offered unto such sinners For therein is the Righteousness of God revealed from Faith unto Faith Rom. 1.17 The Glory of God is represented as in a Glass 2 Cor. 3.18 and Life and Immortality are brought to Light through the Gospel 2 Tim. 1.10 Heb. 2.3 Wherefore 4. The Persons who are required to believe and whose immediate Duty it is so to do are such who really in their own Consciences are brought unto and do make the Enquiries mentioned in the Scripture What shall we do What shall we do to be saved How shall we fly from the wrath to come Wherewithall shall we appear before God How shall we answer what is laid unto our Charge Or such as being sensible of the Guilt of sin do seek for a Righteousness in the sight of God Act. 2.38 Act. 16.30 31. Micah 6.6 7. Isa. 35.4 Heb. 6.18 On these suppositions the Command and Direction given unto men being Believe and you shall be saved the Enquiry is what is that Act or Work of Faith whereby the may obtain a real interest or propriety in the Promises of the Gospel and the things declared in them unto their Justification before God And 1. It is evident from what hath been discoursed that it doth not consist in that it is not to be fully expressed by any one single habit or Act of the Mind or Will distinctly whatever For there are such Descriptions given of it in the Scripture such things are proposed as the Object of it and such is the Experience of all that sincerely believe as no one single Act either of the Mind or Will can answer unto Nor can an exact method of those Acts of the Soul which are concurrent therein be prescribed Only what is Essential unto it is manifest 2. That which in order of Nature seems to have the precedency is the Assent of the Mind unto that which the Psalmist betakes himself unto in the first place for relief under a sense of sin and trouble Psal. 130.3 4. If thou Lord shouldst mark Iniquity O Lord who shall stand The Sentence of the Law and Judgment of Conscience lye against him as unto any Acceptation with God Therefore he despairs in himself of standing in Judgment or being acquitted before him In this state that which the Soul first fixeth on as unto its relief is that there is forgiveness with God This as declared in the Gospel is that God in his Love and Grace will pardon and justifie guilty sinners through the blood and Mediation of Christ So it is proposed Rom. 3.23 24. The Assent of the Mind hereunto as proposed in the Promise of the Gospel is the root of Faith the foundation of all that the Soul doth in believing Nor is there any Evangelical Faith without it But yet consider it abstractedly as a meer Act of the Mind the Essence and Nature of Justifying Faith doth not consist solely therein though it cannot be without it But 2. This is accompanied in sincere Believing with an Approbation of the way of Deliverance and Salvation proposed as an effect of Divine Grace Wisdom and Love whereon the Heart doth rest in it and apply it self unto it according to the Mind of God This is that Faith whereby we are justified which I shall farther evince by shewing what is included in it and inseparable from it 1. It includeth in it a sincere Renunciation of all other ways and means for the attaining of Righteousness Life and Salvation This is Essential unto Faith Act. 4.12 Hos. 14.2 3. Jerem. 3.23 Psal. 71.16 I will make mention of thy Righteousness of thine only When a person is in the condition before described and such alone are called immediately to believe Math. 9.13 chap. 11.28 1 Tim. 1.15 many things will present themselves unto him for his relief particularly his own Righteousness Rom. 10.3 A Renunciation of them all as unto any hope or expectation of Relief from them belongs unto sincere Believing Isa. 50.10 11. 2. There is in it the Wills consent whereby the Soul betakes it self cordially and sincerely as unto all its expectation of pardon of sin and Righteousness before God unto the way of Salvation proposed in the Gospel This is that which is called coming unto Christ and receiving of him whereby true Justifying Faith is so often expressed in the Scripture or as it is peculiarly called believing in him or believing on his name The whole is expressed Joh. 14.6 Jesus saith unto him I am the Way the Truth and the Life no Man cometh unto the Father but by me 3. An Acquiescency of the Heart in God as the Author and principal Cause of the way of Salvation prepared as acting in a way of Soveraign Grace and Mercy towards sinners Who by him do believe in God who raised him up from the dead and gave him Glory that your faith and hope might be in God 1 Pet. 1.21 The Heart of a sinner doth herein give unto God the Glory of all those holy properties of his Nature which he designed to manifest in and by Jesus Christ. See Isa. 42.1 chap. 49.3 And this Acquiescency of the Heart in God is that which is the immediate root of that waiting patience long-suffering and hope which are the proper Acts and Effects of Justifying Faith Heb. 6.12 15 18 19. 4. Trust in God or the Grace and Mercy of God in and through the Lord Christ as set forth to be a propitiation through Faith in his Blood doth belong hereunto or necessarily ensue hereon For the person called
forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood As he is a Propitiation as he shed his Blood for us as we have Redemption thereby he is the peculiar Object of our Faith with respect unto our Justification See to the same purpose Rom. 5.9 10. Ephes. 1.7 Col. 1.14 Ephes. 2.13 14 15 16. Rom. 8.3 4. He was made sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.21 That which we seek after in Justification is a Participation of the Righteousness of God to be made the Righteousness of God and that not in our selves but in another that is in Christ Jesus And that alone which is proposed unto our Faith as the means and cause of it is his being made sin for us or a Sacrifice for sin wherein all the Guilt of our sins was laid on him and he bare all our Iniquities This therefore is its peculiar Object herein And wherever in the Scripture we are directed to seek for the forgiveness of sins by the Blood of Christ receive the Atonement to be justified through the Faith of him as crucified the Object of Faith in Justification is limited and determined But it may be pleaded in Exception unto the Testimonies that no one of them doth affirm that we are justified by Faith in the Blood of Christ alone so as to exclude the consideration of the other Offices of Christ and their actings from being the Object of Faith in the same manner and unto the same ends with his Sacerdotal Office and what belongs thereunto or is derived from it Answ. This exception derives from that common Objection against the Doctrine of Justification by Faith alone namely that That exclusive term alone is not found in the Scripture or in any of the Testimonies that are produced for Justification by Faith But it is replyed with sufficient evidence of Truth that although the word be not found Syllabically used unto this purpose yet there are exceptive Expressions equivalent unto it as we shall see afterwards It is so in this particular instance also For 1 whereas our Justification is expresly ascribed unto our Faith in the Blood of Christ as the Propitiation for our Sins unto our believing in him as Crucified for us and it is no where ascribed unto our receiving of him as King Lord or Prophet it is plain that the former Expressions are virtually exclusive of the later consideration 2 I do not say That the consideration of the Kingly and Prophetical Offices of Christ is excluded from our Justification as works are excluded in Opposition unto Faith and Grace For they are so excluded as that we are to exercise an act of our minds in their positive Rejection as saying Get you hence you have no Lot nor Portion in this matter But as to these Offices of Christ as to the Object of Faith as Justifying we say only that they are not included therein For so to believe to be justified by his Blood as to exercise a positive act of the mind excluding a compliance with his other Offices is an impious Imagination 3. Neither the Consideration of these Offices themselves nor of any of the peculiar Acts of them are suited to give the Souls and Consciences of convinced Sinners that Relief which they seek after in Justification We are not in this whole cause to lose out of our Eye the state of the Person who is to be justified and what it is he doth seek after and ought to seek after therein Now this is Pardon of Sin and Righteousness before God alone That therefore which is no way suited to give or tender this Relief unto him is not nor can be the Object of his Faith whereby he is justified in that exercise of it whereon his justification doth depend This Relief it will be said is to be had in Christ alone it is true but under what Consideration For the sole design of the Sinner is how he may be accepted with God be at peace with him have all his wrath turned away by a Propitiation or Attonement Now this can no otherwise be done but by the acting of some one towards God and with God on his behalf for it is about the turning away of Gods Anger and Acceptance with him that the enquiry is made It is by the Blood of Christ that we are made nigh who were far off Eph. 2.13 By the Blood of Christ are we Reconciled who were Enemies v. 16. By the Blood of Christ we have Redemption Rom. 3.24 25. Eph. 1.7 c. This therefore is the Object of Faith All the actings of the Kingly and Prophetical Offices of Christ are all of them from God that is in the Name and Authority of God towards us Not any one of them is towards God on our behalf so as that by vertue of them we should expect Acceptance with God They are all Good Blessed Holy in themselves and of an eminent tendency unto the Glory of God in our Salvation Yea they are no less necessary unto our Salvation to the praise of Gods Grace then are the Attonement for Sin and Satisfaction which he made for from them is the way of life Revealed unto us Grace communicated our Persons sanctified and the Reward bestowed Yea in the exercise of his Kingly power doth the Lord Christ doth pardon and justifie Sinners Not that he did as a King constitute the Law of Justification for it was given and established in the first Promise and he came to put it in Execution Joh. 3.16 But in the vertue of his Attonement and Righteousness imputed unto them he doth both pardon and justifie Sinners But they are the acts of his Sacerdotal Office alone that respect God on our behalf Whatever he did on Earth with God for the Church in Obedience Suffering and Offering up of himself whatever he doth in Heaven in Intercession and Appearance in the presence of God for us it all entirely belongs unto his Priestly Office And in these things alone doth the Soul of a convinced Sinner find Relief when he seeks after Deliverance from the state of Sin and Acceptance with God In these therefore alone the peculiar Object of his Faith that which will give him Rest and Peace must be comprized And this last consideration is of it self sufficient to determine this difference Sundry things are Objected against this Assertion which I shall not here at large discuss because what is material in any of them will occur on other occasions where its consideration will be more proper In general it may be pleaded that Justifying Faith is the same with saving Faith nor is it said that we are justified by this or that part of Faith but by Faith in General that is as taken essentially for the entire Grace of Faith And as unto Faith in this sense not only a respect unto Christ in all his Offices but Obedience it self also is included in it as is evident in many
being supplied by some to comply with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that ensues And this phrase of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is peculiar unto this Apostle being no where used in the New Testament nor it may be in any other Author but by him And he useth it expresly 1 Epist. 2.29 and Chap. 3.7 where those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do plainly contain what is here expressed 2 To be justified as the word is rendred by the vulgar let him be justified more as it must be rendred if the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be retained respects an act of God which neither in its beginning nor continuation is prescribed unto us as a duty nor is capable of increase in degrees as we shall shew afterwards 3 Men are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 generally from inherent Righteousness and if the Apostle had intended Justification in this place he would not have said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All which things prefer the Complutensian Syriack and Arabick before the vulgar reading of this place If the vulgar reading be retained no more can be intended but that he who is Righteous should so proceed in working Righteousness as to secure his justified estate unto himself and to manifest it before God and the World Now whereas the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are used 36 times in the New Testament these are all the places whereunto any exception is put in against their Forensick signification And how ineffectual these exceptions are is evident unto any impartial Judge Some other Considerations may yet be made use of and pleaded to the same purpose Such is the opposition that is made between Justification and Condemnation So is it Isa. 50.8 9. Prov. 17.15 Rom. 5.16 18. Chap. 8.33 34. and in sundry other places as may be observed in the preceding enumeration of them Wherefore as Condemnation is not the infusing of an habit of wickedness into him that is condemned nor the making of him to be inherently wicked who was before Righteous but the passing a sentence upon a man with respect unto his wickedness no more is Justification the change of a person from inherent unrighteousness unto Righteousness by the infusion of a principle of Grace but a sentential Declaration of him to be Righteous Moreover the thing intended is frequently declared in the Scripture by other aequivalent terms which are absolutely exclusive of any such sense as the infusion of an habit of Righteousness So the Apostle expresseth it by the Imputation of Righteousness without Works Rom. 4.6 11. And calls it the Blessedness which we have by the pardon of sin and the covering of Iniquity in the same place So it is called Reconciliation with God Rom. 5.9 10. To be justified by the Blood of Christ is the same with being Reconciled by his Death Being now justified by his Blood we shall be saved from wrath by him For if when we were Enemies we were reconciled to God by the Death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life See 2 Cor. 5.20 21. Reconciliation is not the infusion of an habit of Grace but the effecting of peace and love by the removal of all enmity and causes of offence To save and Salvation are used to the same purpose He shall save his people from their sins Matth. 1.21 is the same with by him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses Act. 13.39 That of Gal. 2.16 We have believed that we might be justified by the Faith of Christ and not by the Works of the Law is the same with Act. 15.11 But we believe that through the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved even as they Ephes. 2.8 9. By Grace ye are saved through Faith and not of Works is so to be justified So it is expressed by pardon or the Remission of Sins which is the effect of it Rom. 4.5 6. By receiving the Atonement Chap. 5.11 not coming into Judgment or Condemnation Joh. 5.24 Blotting out sins and Iniquities Isa. 43.25 Psal. 51.9 Isa. 44.22 Jer. 18.23 Act. 3.19 Casting them into the bottom of the Sea Micah 7.19 and sundry other expressions of an alike importance The Apostle declaring it by its effects says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Many shall be made Righteous Rom. 5.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who on a juridical Trial in open Court is absolved and declared Righteous And so it may be observed that all things concerning Justification are proposed in the Scripture under a juridical Scheme or Forensick Tryal and Sentence As 1 A judgment is supposed in it concerning which the Psalmist prays that it may not proceed on the terms of the Law Psal. 143.2 2 The Judge is God himself Isa. 50.7 8. Rom. 8.33 3 The Tribunal whereon God sits in Judgment is the Throne of Grace Heb. 4.16 Therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you and therefore vvill he be exalted that he may have mercy upon you for the Lord is a God of Judgment Isa. 30.18 4 A Guilty person This is the Sinner who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so guilty of sin as to be obnoxious to the Judgment of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 3.19 Chap. 1.32 whose mouth is stopped by Conviction 5 Accusers are ready to propose and promote the charge against the guilty person These are the Law Joh. 5.45 and Conscience Rom. 2.15 and Sathan also Zach. 3.2 Rev. 12.10 6 The Charge is admitted and drawn up into an Hand-vvriting in form of Law and is laid before the Tribunal of the Judge in Bar to the Deliverance of the Offender Col. 2.14 7 A Plea is prepared in the Gospel for the guilty person And this is Grace through the Blood of Christ the Ransome paid the Atonement made the Eternal Righteousness brought in by the Surety of the Covenant Rom. 3.23 24 25. Dan. 9.24 Eph. 1.7 8 Hereunto alone the Sinner betakes himself renouncing all other Apologies or defensatives whatever Psal. 130.2 3. Psal. 143.2 Job 9.2 3. Chap. 42.5 6 7. Luk. 18.13 Rom. 3.24 25. Chap. 5.11 16 17 18 19. Chap. 8.1 2 3. ver 32.33 Isa. 53.5 6. Heb. 9.13 14 15. Chap. 10.1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13. 1 Pet. 2.24 1 Joh. 1.7 Other Plea for a Sinner before God there is none He who knoweth God and himself will not provide or betake himself unto any other Nor will he as I suppose trust unto any other defence were he sure of all the Angels in Heaven to plead for him 9 To make this Plea effectual we have an Advocate with the Father and he pleads his own propitiation for us 1 Joh. 2.1 2. 10 The Sentence hereon is Absolution on the account of the Ransome Blood or Sacrifice and Righteousness of Christ with Acceptation into favour as persons approved of God Job
in the behalf of another whose Ability or Reputation is dubious are ad me recipio facâ—et aut faciam And when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken adjectively as sometimes it signifies satisdationibus obnoxius liable to payments for others that are non-solvent 2. God can therefore have no surety properly because there can be no Imagination of any defect on his part There may be indeed a Question whether any Word or Promise be a Word or Promise of God To assure us hereof it is not the Work of a surety but only any one or any means that may give evidence that so it is that is of a Witness But upon a supposition that what is proposed in his Word or Promise there can be no Imagination or fear of any defect on his part so as that there should be any need of a surety for the performance of it He doth therefore make use of Witnesses to confirm his Word that is to testifie that such Promises he hath made and so he will do So the Lord Christ was his Witness Isa. 43.10 Ye are my Witnesses saith the Lord and my Servant whom I have chosen But they were not all his sureties So he affirms that he came into the World to bear witness unto the Truth Joh. 18.37 that is the Truth of the Promises of God for he was the Minister of the Circumcision for the Truth of the Promises of God unto the Fathers Rom. 15.8 But a surety for God properly so called he was not nor could be The distance and difference is wide enough between a witness and a surety For a surety must be of more Ability or more Credit and Reputation than he or those for whom he is a surety or there is no need of his suretiship or at least he must add unto their credit and make it better than without him This none can be for God no not the Lord Christ himself who in his whole work was the Servant of the Father And the Apostle doth not use this word in general improper sense for any one that by any means gives Assurance of any other thing for so he had ascribed nothing peculiar unto Christ. For in such a sense all the Prophets and Apostles were sureties for God and many of them confirmed the Truth of his Word and Promises with the laying down of their lives But such a surety he intends as undertaketh to do that for others which they cannot do for themselves or at least are not reputed to be able to do what is required of them 3. The Apostle had before at large declared who and what was Gods surety in this mattter of the Covenant and how impossible it was that he should have any other And this was himself alone interposing himself by his Oath For in this cause because he had none greater to swear by he sware by himself chap. 6.13 14. Wherefore if God would give any other surety besides himself it must be one greater than He. This being every way impossible he swears by himself only Many ways he may and doth use for the declaring and testifying of his Truth unto us that we may know and believe it to be his Word and so the Lord Christ in his Ministry was the principal witness of the Truth of God But other surety than himself he can have none And therefore 4. When he would have us in this matter not only come unto the full Assurance of Faith concerning his Promises but also to have strong consolation therein he resolves it wholly into the Immutability of his counsel as declared by his Promise and Oath chap. 6.18 19. So that neither is God capable of having any surety properly so called neither do we stand in need of any on his part for the confirmation of our Faith in the highest degree 5. We on all accounts stand in need of a surety for us or on our behalf Neither without the Interposition of such a surety could any Covenant between God and us be firm and stable or an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure In the first Covenant made with Adam there was no surety but God and men were the immediate Covenanters And although we were then in a state and condition able to perform and answer all the Terms of the Covenant yet was it broken and disannulled If this came to pass by the failure of the Promise of God it was necessary that on the making of a new Covenant he should have a surety to undertake for him that the Covenant might be stable and everlasting But this is false and blasphemous to imagine It was man alone who failed and broke that Covenant Wherefore it was necessary that upon the making of the New Covenant and that with a design and purpose that it should never be disannulled as the former was that we should have a surety and undertaker for us For if that first Covenant was not firm and stable because there was no surety to undertake for us notwithstanding all that Ability which we had to answer the terms of it how much less can any other be so now our Natures are become depraved and sinful Wherefore we alone were capable of a surety properly so called for us we alone stood in need of him and without him the Covenant could not be firm and inviolate on our parts The surety therefore of this Covenant is so with God for us 6. It is the Priesthood of Christ that the Apostle treats of in this place and that alone Wherefore he is a surety as he is a Priest and in the discharge of that Office and therefore is so with God on our behalf This Schlictingius observes and is aware what will ensue against his pretensions which he endeavours to obviate Mirum saith he porro alicui videri posset cur Divinus Author de Christi sacerdotio in superioribus in sequentibus agens derepente eum sponsorem foederis non vero sacerdotem vocet Cur non dixerit tanto praestantioris foederis factus est sacerdos Jesus hoc enim plane requirere videtur totus orationis contextus Credibile est in voce sponsionis sacerdotium quoque Christi intelligi Sponsoris enim non est alieno nomine quippiam promittere fidem suam pro alio interponere sed etiam si ita res ferat alterius nomine id quod spopondit praestare In rebus quidem humanis si id non praestet is pro quo sponsor fidejussit hic vero propter contrariam causam nam prior hic locum habere non potest nempe quatenus ille pro quo spopondit Christus per ipsum Christum promissa sua nobis exhibet qua in re praecipue Christi sacerdotium continetur Ans. 1 It may indeed seem strange unto any one who imagineth Christ to be such a surety as he doth why the Apostle should so call him and so introduce him in the Description of his Priestly Office as that which belongeth thereunto But
Righteousness of Christ is imputed unto us or in the sight of God we can never be Justified Nor are the cavilling Objections of the Socinians and those that follow them of any force against the Truth herein They tell us that the Righteousness of Christ can be imputed but unto one if unto any For who can suppose that the same Righteousness of One should become the Righteousness of many even of all that believe Besides he performed not all the Duties that are required of us in all our Relations he being never placed in them These things I say are both foolish and impious destructive unto the whole Gospel For all things here depend on the Ordination of God It is his Ordinance that as through the offence of One many are dead so his Grace and the Gift of Grace through one man Christ Jesus hath abounded unto many and as by the Offence of one Judgment came upon all men unto Condemnation so by the Righteousness of One the free Gift came upon all unto the Righteousness of life and by the Obedience of One many are made Righteous as the Apostle argues Rom. 5. For God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us Rom. 8.3 4. For he was the End of the Law the whole End of it for Righteousness unto them that do believe Chap. 10.4 This is the Appointment of the Wisdom Righteousness and Grace of God that the whole Righteousness and Obedience of Christ should be accepted as our compleat Righteousness before him imputed unto us by his Grace and applied unto us or made ours through believing and consequently unto all that believe And if the actual Sin of Adam be imputed unto us all who derive our Nature from him unto Condemnation though he sinned not in our Circumstances and Relations is it strange that the actual Obedience of Christ should be imputed unto them who derive a Spiritual Nature from him unto the Justification of life Besides both the Satisfaction and Obedience of Christ as relating unto his person were in some sense infinite that is of an infinite Value and so cannot be considered in Parts as though one Part of it were imputed unto one and another unto another but the whole is imputed unto every one that doth believe And if the Israelites could say that David was worth ten thousand of them 2 Sam. 21.3 we may well allow the Lord Christ and so what he did and suffered to be more than us all and all that we can do and suffer There are also sundry other mistakes that concur unto that part of the Charge against the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ unto us which we have now considered I say of his Righteousness for the Apostle in this case useth those two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Righteousness and Obedience as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the same signification Rom. 5.18 19. such are those that Remission of Sin and Justification are the same or that Justification consisteth only in the Remission of Sin that Faith it self as our Act and Duty being it is the Condition of the Covenant is imputed unto us for Righteousness or that we have a personal inherent Righteousness of our own that one way or other is our Righteousness before God unto Justification either a Condition it is or a Disposition unto it or hath a congruity in deserving the Grace of Justification or a down-right merit of Condignity thereof For all these are but various expressions of the same thing according unto the Variety of the Conceptions of the Minds of men about it But they have been all considered and removed in our precedent Discourses To close this Argument and our Vindication of it and therewithal to obviate an Objection I do acknowledg that our Blessedness and life eternal is in the Scripture oftimes ascribed unto the death of Christ But it is so 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the principal Cause of the whole and as that without which no imputation of Obedience could have justified us for the Penalty of the Law was indispensibly to be undergone 2. It is so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not exclusively unto all Obedience whereof mention is made in other Places but as that whereunto it is inseparably conjoyned Christus in vita passivam habuit actionem in morte passionem activam sustinuit dum salutem operaretur in medio terrae Bernard And so it is also ascribed unto his Resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with respect unto Evidence and Manifestation But the Death of Christ exclusively as unto his Obedience is no where asserted as the Cause of eternal life comprizing that exceeding Weight of Glory wherewith it is accompanied Hitherto we have treated of and Vindicated the Imputation of the Active Obedience of Christ unto us as the Truth of it was deduced from the preceding Argument about the Obligation of the Law of Creation I shall now briefly confirm it with other Reasons and Testimonies 1. That which Christ the Mediator and Surety of the Covenant did do in Obedience unto God in the discharge and Performance of his Office that he did for us and that is imputed unto us This hath been proved already and it hath too great an Evidence of Truth to be denied He was born to us given to us Isa. 9.6 For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us Rom. 8.3 4. Whatever is spoken of the Grace Love and Purpose of God in sending or giving his Son or of the Love Grace and Condescention of the Son in coming and undertaking of the Work of Redemption designed unto him or of the Office it self of a Mediator or Surety gives Testimony unto this Assertion Yea it is the Fundamental Principle of the Gospel and of the Faith of all that truly believe As for those by whom the Divine Person and Satisfaction of Christ are denied whereby they evert the whole Work of his Mediation we do not at present consider them Wherefore what he so did is to be enquired into And 1. The Lord Christ our Mediator and Surety was in his Humane Nature made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under the Law Gal. 4.1 That he was not so for himself by the necessity of his Condition we have proved before It was therefore for us But as made under the Law he yielded Obedience unto it this therefore was for us and is imputed unto us The exception of the Socinians that it is the Judicial Law only that is intended is too frivolous to be insisted on For he was made under that Law whose Curse we are delivered from And if we are delivered only from the Curse of the Law of Moses wherein they contend that there
Heb. 6.18 Who have fled for Refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us Prov. 18.10 Hence some have defined Faith to be perfugium animae the flight of the Soul unto Christ for Deliverance from Sin and Misery And much light is given unto the Understanding of the thing intended thereby For herein it is supposed that he who believeth is antecedently thereunto convinced of his lost condition and that if he abide therein he must perish eternally that he hath nothing of himself whereby he may be delivered from it that he must betake himself unto somewhat else for Relief that unto this end he considereth Christ as set before him and proposed unto him in the Promise of the Gospel that he judgeth this to be an holy a safe way for his Deliverance and Acceptance with God as that which hath the Characters of all Divine Excellencies upon it hereon he flyeth unto it for Refuge that is with diligence and speed that he perish not in his present Condition he betakes himself unto it by placing his whole Trust and Affiance thereon And the whole Nature of our Justification by Christ is better declared hereby unto the supernatural Sense and Experience of Believers than by an hundred Philosophical Disputations about it 5. The Terms and Notions by which it is expressed under the Old Testament are leaning on God Micah 3.11 or Christ Cant. 8.5 rolling or casting our selves and our burthen on the Lord Psal. 22.8 Psal. 37.5 The Wisdom of the Holy Ghost in which Expressions hath by some been prophanely derided Resting on God or in him 2 Chron. 14.11 Psal. 37.7 Cleaving unto the Lord Deut. 4.4 Acts 11.15 as also by Trusting Hoping and Waiting in Places innumerable And it may be observed that those who acted Faith as it is thus expressed do every where declare themselves to be lost hopeless helpless desolate poor Orphans whereon they place all their hope and expectation on God alone All that I would infer from these things is that the Faith whereby we believe unto the Justification of life or which is required of us in a way of Duty that we may be justified is such an Act of the whole Soul whereby convinced Sinners do wholly go out of themselves to rest upon God in Christ for Mercy Pardon Life Righteousness and Salvation with an acquiescency of Heart therein which is the whole of the Truth pleaded for CHAP. XVI The Truth pleaded farther confirmed by Testimonies of Scripture Jer. 23.6 THat which we now proceed unto is the consideration of those Express Testimonies of Scripture which are given unto the Truth pleaded for and especially of those places where the Doctrine of the Justification of Sinners is expresly and designedly handled From them it is that we must learn the Truth and into them must our Faith be resolved unto whose Authority all the arguings and Objections of men must give place By them is more light conveyed into the understandings of Believers than by the most subtle Disputations And it is a thing not without scandal to see among Protestants whole Books written about Justification wherein scarce one Testimony of Scripture is produced unless it be to find out Evasions from the force of them And in particular whereas the Apostle Paul hath most fully and expresly as he had the greatest occasion so to do declared and vindicated the Doctrine of Evangelical Justification not a few in what they write about it are so far from declaring their Thoughts and Faith concerning it out of his Writings as that they begin to reflect upon them as obscure and such as give occasion unto dangerous mistakes and unless as was said to answer and except against them upon their own corrupt Principles seldom or never make mention of them As though we were grown wiser than he or that Spirit whereby he was inspired guided acted in all that he wrote But there can be nothing more Alien from the genius of Christian Religion than for us not to endeavour humbly to learn the Mystery of the Grace of God herein in the Declaration of it made by him But the foundation of God standeth sure what course soever men shall be pleased to take into their Profession of Religion For the Testimonies which I shall produce and insist upon I desire the Reader to observe 1. That they are but some of the many that might be pleaded unto the same purpose 2. That those which have been or yet shall be alledged on particular occasions I shall wholly omit and such are most of them that are given unto this Truth in the Old Testament 3. That in the Exposition of them I shall with what diligence I can attend 1. Unto the Analogy of Faith that is the manifest scope and design of the Revelation of the Mind and will of God in the Scripture And that this is to exalt the Freedom and riches of his own Grace the Glory and Excellency of Christ and his Mediation to discover the woful lost forlorn condition of man by Sin to debase and depress every thing that is in and of our selves as to the attaining Life Righteousness and Salvation cannot be denied by any who have their senses exercised in the Scriptures 2. Unto the Experience of them that do believe with the condition of them who seek after Justification by Jesus Christ. In other things I hope the best helps and Rules of the interpretation of the Scripture shall not be neglected There is weight in this case deservedly laid on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God as promised and given unto us namely the Lord our Righteousness Jer. 23.6 As the name Jehovah being given and ascribed unto him is a full indication of his Divine person so the addition of his being our Righteousness sufficiently declares that in and by him alone we have Righteousness or are made righteous So was he typed by Melchisedec as first the King of Righteousness then the King of Peace Heb. 7.2 For by his Righteousness alone have we Peace with God Some of the Socinians would evade this Testimony by observing that Righteousness in the Old Testament is used sometimes for Benignity Kindness and Mercy and so they suppose it may be here But the most of them avoiding the palpable absurdity of this imagination refer it to the Righteousness of God in deliverance and vindication of his people So Brennius briefly Ita vocatur quia Dominus per manum ejus judicium justitiam faciet Israeli But these are evasions of bold men who care not so they may say somewhat whether what they say be agreeable to the Analogy of Faith or the plain words of the Scripture Bellarmine who was more wary to give some appearance of Truth unto his answers first gives other reasons why he is called the Lord our Righteousness and then whether unawares or over-powered by the evidence of Truth grants that sense of the words which contains the whole of the cause we plead
have made some undue Assumptions on his own behalf The Question was now reduced unto this on what Grounds he might or could be justified in the sight of God To prepare his mind unto a right Judgement in this case God manifests his Glory unto him and instructs him in the Greatness of His Majesty and Power And this he doth by a multiplication of Instances because under our Temptations we are very slow in admitting right conceptions of God Here the Holy man quickly acknowledged that the state of the case was utterly altered All his former pleas of Faith Hope and Trust in God of sincerity in Obedience which with so much earnestness he before insisted on are now quite laid aside He saw well enough that they were not pleadable at the Tribunal before which he now appeared so that God should enter into Judgment with him thereon with respect unto his Justification Wherefore in the deepest self-abasement and abhorrency he betakes himself unto Soveraign Grace and Mercy For then Job answered the Lord and said behold I am vile what shall I answer thee I will lay mine hand upon my mouth once have I spoken but I will not answer yea twice but I will proceed no farther Job 40.3 4 5 And again Hear I beseech thee and I will speak I will demand of thee and declare thou unto me I have heard of thee by the hearing of the Ear but now mine Eye seeth thee wherefore I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes chap. 42.4 5 6. Let any men place themselves in the Condition wherein now Job was in the immediate presence of God Let them attend unto what he really speaks unto them in his word namely what they will answer unto the Charge that he hath against them and what will be their best plea before his Tribunal that they may be Justified I do not believe that any man living hath more encouraging Grounds to plead for an interest in his own Faith and Obedience in his Justification before God then Job had although I suppose he had not so much skill to manage a plea to that purpose with Scholastick notions and distinctions as the Jesuits have But however we may be harnessed with subtile Arguments and Solutions I fear it will not be safe for us to adventure farther upon God then he durst to do There was of old a Direction for the visitation of the Sick composed as they say by Anselm and published by Casparus Vlenhergius which expresseth a better sense of these things then some seem to be convinced of Credisne te non posse salvari nisi per mortem Christi Respondet infirmus Etiam tum dicit illi Age Ergo dum superest in te anima in hac sola morte fiduciam tuam constitue in nulla alia re fiduciam habe huic morti te totum committe hac sola te totum contege totum immisce te in hac morte in hac morte totum te involve Et si Dominus te voluerit judicare Dic Domine mortem Domini nostri Jesu Christi objicio inter me tuum Judicium aliter tecum non contendo Et si tibi dixerit quia peccator es dic mortem Domini nostri Jesu Christi pono inter me peccata mea Si dixerit tibi quod meruisti damnationem dic Domine mortem Domini nostri Jesu Christi obtendo inter te mala merita mea ipsiusque merita offero pro merito quod ego debuissem habere nec habeo si dixerit quod tibi est iratus dic Domine mortem Domini Jesu Christi oppono inter me iram tuam That is Dost thou believe that thou canst not be saved but by the death of Christ The sick man answereth yes then let it be said unto him Go to then and whilst thy Soul abideth in thee put all thy confidence in this death alone place thy trust in no other thing commit thy self wholly to this Death cover thy self wholly with this alone cast thy self wholly on this Death wrap thy self wholly in this Death And if God would judge thee say Lord I place the Death of our Lord Jesus Christ between me and thy judgment and otherwise I will not contend or enter into Judgment with thee And if he shall say unto thee that thou art a sinner say I place the Death of our Lord Jesus Christ between me and my sins If he shall say unto thee that thou hast deserved damnation say Lord I put the Death of our Lord Jesus Christ between thee and all my sins and I offer his merits for my own which I should have and have not If he say that he is angry with thee say Lord I place the Death of our Lord Jesus Christ between me and thy Anger Those who gave these Directions seem to have been sensible of what it is to appear before the Tribunal of God and how unsafe it will be for us there to insist on any thing in our selves Hence are the words of the same Anselm in his Meditations Conscientia mea meruit damnationem penitentia mea non sufficit ad satisfactionem sed certum est quod misericordia tua superat omnem offensionem My Conscience hath deserved damnation and my Repentance is not sufficient for satisfaction but most certain it is that thy mercy aboundeth above all offence And this seems to me a better Direction then those more lately given by some of the Roman Church Such is the prayer suggested unto a sick man by Johan Polandus lib. Methodus in adjuvandis morientibus Domine Jesu conjunge obsecro obsequium meum cum omnibus quae tu egisti passus es ex tam perfecta Charitate Obedientia Et cum divitiis satisfactionum meritorum Dilectionis Patri aeterno illud offerre digneris Or that of a greater Author Antidot Animae fol. 17. Tu hinc o rosea Martyrum turba offer pro me nunc in hora mortis meae merita fidelitatum constantiae pretiosi sanguinis cum sanguine Agni immaculati pro omnium salute effust Hierom long before Anselm spake to the same purpose Cum dies Judicij aut dormitionis advenerit omnes manus dissolventur quibus dicitur in alio loco confortamini manus dissolutae dissolventur auntem manus quia nullum opus dignum Dei justitia reperiatur non justificabitur in conspectu ejus omnis vivens unde Propheta dicit in Psalmo si iniquitates attendas Domine quis sustinebit lib. 6. in Isa. in cap. 13. v. 6 7. When the day of Judgement or of Death shall come all hands will be dissolved that is faint or fall down unto which it is said in another place be strengthened ye hands that hang down But all hands shall be melted down that is all mens strength and confidence shall fail them because no works shall be found which can answer the Righteousness of God for no flesh shall be
justified in his sight Whence the Prophet says in the Psalm If thou Lord shouldst mark iniquity who should stand And Ambrose to the same purpose Nemo ergo sibi arroget nemo de meritis glorietur nemo de potestate se jactet omnes speremus per Dominum Jesum misericordiam invenire quoniam omnes ante Tribunal ejus stabimus de illo veniam de illo indulgentiam postulabo quaenam spes alia peccatoribus in Psal. 119. Resh Let no man arrogate any thing unto himself let no man glory in his own merits or good deeds let no man boast of his power let us all hope to find mercy by Lord Jesus for we shall all stand before his Judgment-seat Of him will I beg pardon of him will I desire Indulgence what other hope is there for sinners Wherefore if men will be turned off from a continual regard unto the Greatness Holiness and Majesty of God by their Inventions in the Heat of Disputation if they do forget a Reverential Consideration of what will become them and what they may betake themselves unto when they stand before his Tribunal they may ingage into such apprehensions as they dare not abide by in their own personal Trial. For how shall man be just with God Hence it hath been observed that the School-men themselves in their Meditations and Devotional writings wherein they had immediate thoughts of God with whom they had to do did speak quite another Language as to Justification before God then they do in their wrangling Philosophical fiery Disputes about it And I had rather learn what some men really judge about their own Justification from their prayers then their writings Nor do I remember that I did ever hear any good man in his prayers use any expressions about Justification pardon of sin and Righteousness before God wherein any plea from any thing in our selves was introduced or made use of The Prayer of Daniel hath in this matter been the substance of their Supplications O Lord Righteousness belongeth unto thee but unto us confusion of faces we do not present our Supplications before thee for our own Righteousness but for thy great mercies O Lord hear O Lord forgive for thine own sake O my God Dan. 9.7 18 19. Or that of the Psalmist Enter not into Judgement with thy servant O Lord for in thy sight shall no man living be justified Psal. 143.2 Or If thou Lord mark Iniquity Lord who shall stand but there is forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared Psal. 130. 2 3 4. On which words the Exposition of Austin is remarkable speaking of David and applying it unto himself Ecce clamat sub molibus iniquitatum suarum Circumspexit se circumspexit vitam suam vidit illam undique flagitiis coopertam quacunque respexit nihil in se boni invenit Et cum tanta tam multa peccata undique videret tanquam expavescens exclamavit si iniquitates observaris Domine quis sustinebit vidit enim prope totam vitam humanam circumlatrari peccatis accusari omnes conscientias cogitationibus suis non inveniri Cor Castum praesumens de justitia quod quia inveniri non potest praesumat ergo omnium Cor de misericordia Domini Dei sui dicat Deo si iniquitates observaris Domine Domine quis sustinebit Quae autem est spes quoniam apud te propitiatio est And whereas we may and ought to represent unto God in our Supplications our Faith or what it is that we believe herein I much question whether some men can find in their hearts to pray over and plead before him all the Arguments and Distinctions they make use of to prove the interest of our Works and Obedience in our Justification before him or enter into Judgement with him upon the conclusions which they make from them Nor will many be satisfied to make use of that Prayer which Pelagius taught the Widow as it was objected to him in the Diaspolitan Synod Tu nosti Domine quam sanctae quam innocentes quam purae ab omni fraude rapina quas ad te expando manus quam justa quam immaculata labia ab omni mendacio libera quibus tibi ut mihi miserearis preces fundo Thou knowest O Lord how holy how innocent how pure from all deceit and rapine are the hands which I stretch forth unto thee how just how unspotted with evil how free from lying are those lips wherewith I pour forth prayers unto thee that thou wouldst have mercy on me And yet although he taught her so to plead her own purity innocency and righteousness before God yet he doth it not as those whereon she might be absolutely justified but only as the condition of her obtaining mercy Nor have I observed that any publick Liturgies the Mass-Book only excepted wherein there is a frequent recourse unto the merits and intercession of Saints do guide men in their prayers before God to plead any thing for their acceptance with him or as the means or condition thereof but Grace Mercy the Righteousness and Blood of Christ alone Wherefore I cannot but judge it best others may think of it as they please for those who would teach or learn the Doctrine of Justification in a due manner to place their Consciences in the presence of God and their Persons before his Tribunal and then upon a due consideration of his Greatness Power Majesty Righteousness Holiness of the terrour of his Glory and Soveraign Authority to enquire what the Scripture and a sense of their own Condition directs them unto as their Relief and Refuge and what Plea it becomes them to make for themselves Secret thoughts of God and our selves retired meditations the conduct of the spirit in humble supplications Death-bed preparations for an immediate appearance before God Faith and Love in exercise on Christ speak other things for the most part then many contend for 3. A clear apprehension and due sense of the Greatness of our Apostasie from God of the Depravation of our Natures thereby of the Power and Guilt of Sin of the Holiness and Severity of the Law are necessary unto a right apprehension of the Doctrine of Justification Therefore unto the Declaration of it doth the Apostle premise a large Discourse throughly to convince the minds of all that seek to be justified with a sense of these things Rom. 1.2 3. The Rules which he hath given us the Method which he prescribeth and the Ends which he designeth are those which we shall chuse to follow And He layeth it down in general That the Righteoussness of God is revealed from Faith to Faith and that the Just shall live by Faith chap. 1.17 But he declares not in particular the causes nature and way of our Justification until he hath fully evinced that all men are shut up under this state of sin and manifested how deplorable their Condition is thereby And in the Ignorance of these things in the
Christ unto the Grace of God that fixeth it self on the Lord Christ and that Redemption which is in his blood as the Ordinance of God the Effect of his Wisdom Grace and Love finds rest in both and in nothing else For the proof of the Assertion I need not labour in it it being not only abundantly declared in the Scripture but that which contains in it a principal part of the Design and Substance of the Gospel I shall therefore only refer unto some of the Places wherein it is taught or the Testimonies that are given unto it The whole is expressed in that place of the Apostle wherein the Doctrine of Justification is most eminently proposed unto us Rom. 3.24 25. Being justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood to declare his Righteousness for the Remission of sins Whereunto we may add Ephes. 1.6 7. He hath made us accepted in the Beloved in whom we have Redemption through his Blood according to the Riches of his Grace That whereby we are justified is the especial Object of our Faith unto Justification But this is the Lord Christ in the Work of his Mediation For we are justified by the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ for in him we have Redemption through his Blood even the forgiveness of sin Christ as a Propitiation is the Cause of our Justification and the Object of our Faith or we attain it by Faith in his Blood But this is so under this formal Consideration as he is the Ordinance of God for that End appointed given proposed set forth from and by the Grace Wisdom and Love of God God set him forth to be a Propitiation He makes us accepted in the Beloved We have Redemption in his Blood according to the Riches of his Grace whereby he makes us accepted in the Beloved And herein he abounds towards us in all wisdom Ephes. 1.8 This therefore is that which the Gospel proposeth unto us as the especial Object of our Faith unto the Justification of Life But we may also in the same manner confirm the several parts of the Assertion distinctly 1. The Lord Jesus Christ as proposed in the Promise of the Gospel is the peculiar Object of Faith unto Justification There are three sorts of Testimonies whereby this is confirmed 1. Those wherein it is positively asserted As Act. 10.41 To him give all the Prophets witness that through his Name whosoever believeth in him shall receive the Remission of sins Christ believed in as the means and cause of the Remission of sins is that which all the Prophets give witness unto Act. 16.31 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved It is the Answer of the Apostles unto the Jaylors enquiry Sirs What must I do to be saved His Duty in Believing and the Object of it the Lord Jesus Christ is what they return thereunto Act. 4.12 Neither is there Salvation in any other for there is none other Name under Heaven given unto men whereby we must be saved That which is proposed unto us as the only way and means of our Justification and Salvation and that in opposition unto all other ways is the Object of Faith unto our Justification But this is Christ alone exclusively unto all other things This is testified unto by Moses and the Prophets the Design of the whole Scripture being to direct the Faith of the Church unto the Lord Christ alone for Life and Salvation Luke 24.25 26 27. 2. All those wherein Justifying Faith is affirmed to be our Believing in him or Believing on his name which are multiplied Joh. 1.12 He gave power to them to become the Sons of God who believed on his name chap. 3.16 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have Everlasting Life ver 36. He that believeth on the Son hath Everlasting Life chap. 6.29 This is the work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent ver 47. He that believeth on me hath Everlasting Life chap. 7.38 He that believeth on me out of his Belly shall flow Rivers of Living Water So chap. 9.35 36 37. chap. 11.25 Act. 26.18 That they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them that are sanctified by Faith that is in me 1 Pet. 2.6 7. In all which places and many other we are not only directed to place and affix our Faith on him but the Effect of Justification is ascribed thereunto So expresly Act. 13.38 39. which is what we design to prove 3. Those which give us such a description of the Acts of Faith as make him the direct and proper Object of it Such are they wherein it is called a receiving of him Joh. 1.12 To as many as received him Col. 2.6 As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord. That which we receive by Faith is the proper Object of it And it is represented their looking unto the Brazen Serpent when it was lifted up who were stung by fiery Serpents Joh. 3.14 15. chap. 12. 32. Faith is that Act of the Soul whereby Convinced sinners ready otherwise to perish do look unto Christ as he was made a Propitiation for their sins and who so do shall not perish but have Everlasting Life He is therefore the Object of our Faith 2 ly He is so as he is the Ordinance of God unto this End which consideration is not to be separated from our Faith in him And this also is confirmed by several sorts of Testimonies 1. All Those wherein the Love and Grace of God are proposed as the only Cause of giving Jesus Christ to be the way and means of our Recovery and Salvation whence they become or God in them the supream Efficient Cause of our Justification Joh. 3.16 God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have Everlasting Life So Rom. 5.8 1 Joh. 4.9 10. Being justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Christ Rom. 3.23 Ephes. 1.6 7 8. This the Lord Christ directs our Faith unto continually referring all unto him that sent him and whose Will be came to do Heb. 10.5 2. All those wherein God is said to set forth and propose Christ and to make him be for us and unto us what he is so unto the Justification of Life Rom. 3.25 Whom God hath proposed to be a Propitiation 1. Cor. 1.30 Who of God is made unto us Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption 2 Cor. 5.21 He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him Act. 5.35 c. Wherefore in the acting of Faith in Christ unto Justification we can no otherwise consider him but as the Ordinance of God to that End he brings nothing unto us does nothing for us but what God appointed designed and made him to be
necessary Condition of Justification for it is that which they call the first Justification alone which we treat about And that the Continuation of our Justification depends solely on the same causes with our Justification it self shall be afterwards declared But it is not yet proved nor ever will be that whatever is required in them that are to be justified is a Condition whereon their Justification is immediately suspended We allow that alone to be a Condition of Justification which hath an influence of causality thereunto though it be but the causality of an Instrument This we ascribe unto Faith alone And because we do so it is pleaded that we ascribe more in our Justification unto our selves than they do by whom we are opposed For we ascribe the efficiency of an Instrument herein unto our own Faith when they say only that it is a Condition or Causa sine qua non of our Justification But I judge that grave and wise men ought not to give so much to the defence of the Cause they have undertaken seeing they cannot but know indeed the contrary For after they have given the specious name of a Condition and a Causa sine qua non unto Faith they immediately take all other Graces and Works of Obedience into the same state with it and the same use in Justification and after this seeming Gold hath been cast for a while into the fire of Disputation there comes out the Calf of a personal inherent Righteousness whereby Men are justified before God virtute foederis Evangelici for as for the Righteousness of Christ to be imputed unto us it is gone into Heaven and they know not what is become of it Having given this brief Declaration of the Nature of Justifying Faith and the Acts of it as I suppose sufficient unto my present Design I shall not trouble my self to give an accurate Definition of it What are my Thoughts concerning it will be better understood by what hath been spoken than by any precise definition I can give And the Truth is definitions of Justifying Faith have been so multiplied by Learned Men and in so great variety and such a manifest inconsistency among some of them that they have been of no advantage unto the Truth but occasions of new Controversies and Divisions whilst every one hath laboured to defend the Accuracy of his own Definition when yet it may be difficult for a true Believer to find any thing compliant with his own Experience in them which kind of Definitions in these things I have no esteem for I know no man that hath laboured in this Argument about the Nature of Faith more than Doctor Jackson yet when he hath done all he gives us a definition of Justifying Faith which I know few that will subscribe unto yet is it in the main scope of it both pious and sound For he tells us Here at length we may define the Faith by which the just do live to be a firm and constant Adherence unto the mercies and loving kindness of the Lord or generally unto the spiritual food exhibited in his Sacred Word as much better than this Life it self and all the Contentments it is capable of grounded on a taste or relish of their sweetness wrought in the Soul or Heart of a Man by the spirit of Christ. Whereunto he adds The terms for the most part are the Prophet Davids not metaphorical as some may fancy much less equivocal but proper and homogeneal to the subject defined Tom. 1. Book 4. chap. 9. For the lively Scriptural Expressions of Faith by receiving of Christ leaning on him rolling our selves or our burden on him tasting how gracious the Lord is and the like which of late have been reproached yea blasphemed by many I may have occasion to speak of them afterwards as also to manifest that they convey a better understanding of the Nature Work and Object of Justifying Faith unto the minds of men spiritually enlightened than the most accurate Definitions that many pretend unto some whereof are destructive and exclusive of them all CHAP. III. The Vse of Faith in Justification It s especial Object farther cleared THe Description before given of Justifying Faith doth sufficiently manifest of what Vse it is in Justification Nor shall I in general add much unto what may be thence observed unto that purpose But whereas this Vse of it hath been expressed with some variety and several ways of it asserted inconsistent with one another they must be considered in our passage And I shall do it with all brevity possible for these things lead not in any part of the Controversie about the Nature of Justification but are meerly subservient unto other Conceptions concerning it When Men have fixed their Apprehensions about the principal matters in Controversie they express what concerneth the Vse of Faith in an Accommodation thereunto Supposing such to be the Nature of Justification as they assert it must be granted that the Vse of Faith therein must be what they plead for And if what is peculiar unto any in the substance of the Doctrine be disproved they cannot deny but that their Notions about the Vse of Faith do fall unto the Ground Thus is it with all who affirm Faith to be either the Instrument or the Condition or the Causa sine qua non or the preparation and disposition of the Subject or a meritorious cause by way of condecency or congruity in and of our Justification For all these notions of the Vse of Faith are suited and accommodated unto the Opinions of Men concerning the nature and principal causes of Justification Neither can any Trial or Determination be made as unto their Truth and Propriety but upon a previous Judgment concerning those causes and the whole Nature of Justification it self Whereas therefore it were vain and endless to plead the principal matter in Controversie upon every thing that occasionally belongs unto it and so by the Title unto the whole Inheritance on every Cottage that is built on the premises I shall briefly speak unto these various Conceptions about the Vse of Faith in our Justification rather to find out and give an understanding of what is intended by them than to argue about their Truth and Propriety which depends on that wherein the substance of the Controversie doth consist Protestant Divines until of late have unanimously affirmed Faith to be the instrumental cause of our Justification So it is expressed to be in many of the publick Confessions of their Churches This Notion of theirs concerning the Nature and Vse of Faith was from the first opposed by those of the Roman Church Afterwards it was denied also by the Socinians as either false or improper Socin Miscellnn Smalcius adv Frantz disput 4 Schlicting adver Meisner de Justificat And of late this expression is disliked by some among our selves wherein they follow Episcopius Curcellius and others of that way Those who are sober and moderate do rather decline
account of the Righteousness imputed unto him he doth at the same instant by the power of his Grace make him inherently and subjectively Righteous or Holy which men cannot do one towards another And therefore whereas mans Justifying of the wicked is to justifie them in their wicked ways whereby they are constantly made worse and more obdurate in evil when God justifies the ungodly their change from personal unrighteousness and unholiness unto Righteousness and Holiness doth necessarily and infallibly accompany it To the same purpose is the word used Isa. 5.23 Which justifie the wicked for Reward Chap. 50.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is near that justifieth me who shall contend with me let us stand together who is my Adversary let him come near unto Behold the Lord God will help me who shall condemn me Where we have a full Declaration of the proper sense of the Word which is to acquit and pronounce Righteous on a Trial. And the same sense is fully expressed in the former Antithesis 1 Kings 8.31 32. If any man trespass against his Neighbour and an Oath be laid upon him to cause him to swear and the Oath came before thine Altar in this House then hear thou in Heaven and do and judge thy Servants 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to condemn the wicked to charge his wickedness on him to bring his way on his head 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to justifie the Righteous The same words are repeated 2 Chron. 6.22 23. Psal. 82.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Do justice to the Afflicted and Poor that is justifie them in their cause against Wrong and Oppression Exod. 23.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will not justifie the wicked absolve acquit or pronounce him Righteous Job 27.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be it far from me that I should justifie you or pronounce sentence on your side as if you were Righteous Isa. 53.11 By his knowledge my Righteous servant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall justifie many the reason whereof is added For he shall bear their Iniquities whereon they are absolved and justified Once it is used in Hithpael wherein a reciprocal action is denoted that whereby a man Justifieth himself Gen. 44.16 And Judah said what shall we say unto my Lord what shall we speak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and how shall we justify our selves God hath found out our Iniquity they could plead nothing why they should be absolved from Guilt Once the Participle is used to denote the outward instrumental cause of the Justification of others in which place alone there is any doubt of its sense Dan. 12.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And they that justify many namely in the same sense that the Preachers of the Gospel are said to save themselves and others 1 Tim. 4.16 For men may be no less the Instrumental causes of the Justification of others than of their Sanctification Wherefore although 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Kal signifies justum esse and sometimes juste agere which may relate unto inherent Righteousness yet where any action towards another is denoted this word signifies nothing but to esteem declare pronounce and adjudge any one absolved acquitted cleared justified There is therefore no other kind of Justification once mentioned in the Old Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word used to the same purpose in the New Testament and that alone Neither is this word used in any good Author whatever to signifie the making of a man Righteous by any applications to produce internal Righteousness in him but either to absolve and acquit to judge esteem and pronounce Righteous or on the contrary to condemn So Suidas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It hath two signifiications to punish and to account Righteous And he confirms this sense of the word by Instances out of Herodotus Appianus and Josephus And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with an Accusative case that is when it respects and effects a Subject a Person it is either to condemn and punish or to esteem and declare Righteous and of this latter sense he gives pregnant instances in the next words Hesychius mentions only the first signification 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They never thought of any sense of this word but what is Forensick And in our Language to be Justified was commonly used formerly for to be judged and sentenced as it is still among the Scots One of the Articles of Peace between the two Nations at the surrender of Leith in the days of Edward the sixth was That if any one committed a crime he should be justified by the Law upon his Trial. And in general 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Jus in judicio auferre and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is justum censere declarare pronuntiare and how in the Scriptures it is constantly opposed unto condemnare we shall see immediately But we may more distinctly consider the use of this Word in the New Testament as we have done that of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Old And that which we enquire concerning is whether this word be used in the New Testament in a Forensick sense to denote an Act of Jurisdiction or in a Physical sense to express an internal change or mutation the infusion of an habit of Righteousness and the denomination of the person to be Justified thereon or whether it signifieth not pardon of sin But this we may lay aside For surely no man was ever yet so fond as to pretend that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did signifie to pardon sin yet is it the only word apply'd to express our Justification in the New Testament For if it be taken only in the former sense then that which is pleaded for by those of the Roman Church under the name of Justification whatever it be however good useful and necessary yet Justification it is not nor can be so called seeing it is a thing quite of another nature than what alone is signified by that word Matth. 11.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wisdom is justified of her Children not made just but approved and declared Chap. 12.37 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the words thou shalt be Justified not made just by them but judged according to them as is manifest in the Antithesis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by thy words thou shalt be condemned Luke 7.29 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they justified God not surely by making him Righteous in himself but by owning avowing and declaring his Righteousness Chap. 10.29 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He willing to justifie himself to declare and maintain his own Righteousness To the same purpose Chap. 16.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you are they that justifie your selves before men they did not make themselves internally Righteous but approved of their own condition as our Saviour declares in the place Chap. 18.14 The Publican went down 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justified unto his House that is acquitted absolved pardoned upon the confession of his sin and supplication for Remission Act. 13.38 39. with Rom. 2.13
33.24 Psal. 32.1 2. Rom. 3.23 24 25. Chap. 8.1 33 34. 2 Cor. 5.21 Gal. 3.13 14. Of what use the Declaration of this Process in the Justification of a Sinner may be hath been in some measure before declared And if many did seriously consider that all these things do concur and are required unto the Justification of every one that shall be saved it may be they would not have such slight thoughts of sin and the way of Deliverance from the guilt of it as they seem to have From this Consideration did the Apostle learn that Terror of the Lord which made him so earnest with men to seek after Reconciliation 2 Cor. 5.10 11. I had not so long insisted on the signification of the words in the Scripture but that a right understanding of it doth not only exclude the pretences of the Romanists about the infusion of an habit of Charity from being the formal cause of our Justification before God but may also give occasion unto some to take advice into what place or consideration they can dispose their own personal inherent Righteousness in their Justification before him CHAP. V. The Distinction of a first and second Justification Examined The Continuation of Justification whereon it doth depend BEfore we enquire immediately into the nature and causes of Justification there are some things yet previously to be considered that we may prevent all Ambiguity and misunderstanding about the Subject to be treated of I say therefore that the Evangelical Justification which alone we plead about is but one and is at once compleated About any other Justification before God but one we will not contend with any Those who can find out another may as they please ascribe what they will unto it or ascribe it unto what they will Let us therefore consider what is offered of this nature Those of the Roman Church do ground their whole Doctrine of Justification upon a distinction of a double Justification which they call the first and the second The first Justification they say is the infusion or the Communication unto us of an inherent principle or habit of Grace or Charity Hereby they say Original sin is extinguished and all habits of sin are expelled This Justification they say is by Faith the Obedience and Satisfaction of Christ being the only meritorious cause thereof Only they dispute many things about preparations for it and dispositions unto it Under those terms the Council of Trent included the Doctrine of the Schoolmen about meritum de congruo as both Hosius and Andradius confess in the defence of that Council And as they are explained they come much to one however the Council warily avoided the name of merit with respect unto this their first Justification And the use of Faith herein which with them is no more but a general assent unto Divine Revelation is to bear the principal part in these preparations So that to be Justified by Faith according unto them is to have the mind prepared by this kind of believing to receive Gratiam gratum facientem an habit of Grace expelling sin and making us acceptable unto God For upon this believing with those other Duties of Contrition and Repentance which must accompany it it is meet and congruous unto Divine Wisdom Goodness and Faithfulness to give us that Grace whereby we are justified And this according unto them is that Justification whereof the Apostle Paul treats in his Epistles from the procurement whereof he excludes all the Works of the Lavv. The second Justification is an effect or consequent hereof And the proper formal cause thereof is Good Works proceeding from this Principle of Grace and Love Hence are they the Righteousness wherewith Believers are Righteous before God Whereby they merit eternal life The Righteousness of Works they call it and suppose it taught by the Apostle James This they constantly affirm to make us justos ex injustis wherein they are followed by others For this is the way that most of them take to salve the seeming repugnancy between the Apostle Paul and James Paul they say treats of the first Justification only whence he excludes all Works for it is by Faith in the manner before described But James treats of the second Justification which is by good Works So Bellar. lib. 2. cap. 16. and lib. 4. cap. 18. And it is the express Determination of those at Trent Sess. 6. cap. 10. This distinction was coyned unto no other end but to bring in Confusion into the whole Doctrine of the Gospel Justification through the free Grace of God by Faith in the Blood of Christ is evacuated by it Sanctification is turned into a Justification and corrupted by making the fruits of it meritorious The whole nature of Evangelical Justification consisting in the gratuitous pardon of Sin and the Imputation of Righteousness as the Apostle expresly affirms and the declaration of a Believing Sinner to be Righteous thereon as the Word alone signifies is utterly defeated by it Howbeit others have embraced this distinction also though not absolutely in their sense So do the Socinians Yea it must be allowed in some sense by all that hold our inherent Righteousness to be the cause of or to have any influence into our Justification before God For they do allow of a Justification which in order of nature is antecedent unto Works truly Gracious and Evangelical But consequential unto such Works there is a Justification differing at least in degree if not in nature and kind upon the difference of its formal cause which is our new Obedience from the former But they mostly say it is only the continuation of our Justification and the encrease of it as to degrees that they intend by it And if they may be allowed to turn Sanctification into Justification and to make a progress therein or an encrease thereof either in the root or fruit to be a new Justification they may make twenty Justifications as well as two for ought I know For therein the inward man is renewed day by day 2 Cor. 4.16 and Believers go from strength to strength are changed from Glory to Glory 2 Cor. 3.18 by the Addition of one Grace unto another in their exercise 2 Pet. 1.5 6 7 8. and increasing with the encrease of God Col. 2.19 do in all things grow up into him who is the Head Ephes. 4.15 And if their Justification consist herein they are justified anew every day I shall therefore do these two things 1 Shew that this distinction is both unscriptural and irrational 2 Declare what is the continuation of our Justification and whereon it doth depend Justification by Faith in the Blood of Christ may be considered either as to the nature and essence of it or as unto its Manifestation and Declaration The Manifestation of it is twofold 1 Initial in this life 2 Solemn and compleat at the day of Judgment whereof we shall treat afterwards The Manifestation of it in this life respects either
of the pardon of sin for the satisfaction of Christ and the infusion of an habit of Grace enabling us to perform those Works is declared by those who so express themselves Some add that this inherent personal Evangelical Righteousness is the condition on our part of our legal Righteousness or of the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ unto our Justification or the pardon of sin And those by whom the satisfaction and merit of Christ are denied make it the only and whole condition of our absolute Justification before God So speak all the Socinians constantly For they deny our Obedience unto Christ to be either the meritorious or efficient cause of our Justification only they say it is the Condition of it without which God hath decreed that we shall not be made partakers of the Benefit thereof So doth Socinus himself De Justificat pag. 17. Sunt opera nostra id est ut dictum fuit Obedientia quam Christo praestamus licet nec efficiens nec meritoria tamen causa est ut vocant sine qua non Justificationis coram Deo atque aeternae nostrae Again pag. 14. inter Opuscul Vt cavendum est ne vitae sanctitatem atque innocentiam effectum Justificationis nostrae coram Deo esse credamus neque illam nostrae coram Deo Justificationis causam efficientem aut impulsivam esse affirmemus sed tantummodo causam sine qua eam Justificationem nobis non contingere decrevit Deus And in all their discourses to this purpose they assert our personal Righteousness and Holiness or our Obedience unto the commands of Christ which they make to be the Form and Essence of Faith to be the Condition whereon we obtain Justification or the Remission of sins And indeed considering what their Opinion is concerning the person of Christ with their denial of his satisfaction and merit it is impossible they should frame any other Idea of Justification in their minds But what some among our selves intend by a compliance with them herein who are not necessitated thereunto by a prepossession with their Opinions about the Person and Mediation of Christ I know not For as for them all their notions about Grace Conversion to God Justification and the like Articles of our Religion they are nothing but what they are necessarily cast upon by their Hypothesis about the Person of Christ. At present I shall only enquire into that peculiar Evangelical Justification which is asserted to be the effect of our own Personal Righteousness or to be granted us thereon And hereunto we may observe 1. That God doth require in and by the Gospel a sincere Obedience of all that do believe to be performed in and by their own Persons though through the Aids of Grace supplied unto them by Jesus Christ. He requireth indeed Obedience Duties and Works of Righteousness in and of all Persons whatever But the consideration of them which are performed before believing is excluded by all from any causality or interest in our Justification before God At least whatever any may discourse of the necessity of such Works in a way of preparation unto believing whereunto we have spoken before none bring them into the verge of Works Evangelical or Obedience of Faith which would imply a contradiction But that the Works enquired after are necessary unto all Believers is granted by all on what Grounds and unto what Ends we shall enquire afterwards they are declared Ephes. 2.10 2. It is likewise granted that Believers from the performance of this Obedience or these Works of Righteousness are denominated Righteous in the Scripture and are personally and internally Righteous Luke 1.6 Joh. 3.7 But yet this denomination is no where given unto them with respect unto Grace habitually inherent but unto the effects of it in Duties of Obedience as in the places mentioned They were both Righteous before God walking in all the Commandments and Ordinances of the Lord blameless The latter words give the Reason of the former or their being esteemed Righteous before God And he that doth Righteousness is Righteous the denomination is from doing And Bellarmine endeavouring to prove that it is habitual not actual Righteousness which is as he speaks the formal cause of our Justification before God could not produce one Testimony of Scripture wherein any One is denominated Righteous from habitual Righteousness De Justificat lib. 2. cap. 15. but is forced to attempt the proof of it with this absurd Argument namely that we are justified by the Sacraments which do not work in us Actual but Habitual Righteousness And this is sufficient to discover the insufficiency of a Pretence for any Interest of our own Righteousness from this Denomination of being Righteous thereby seeing it hath not respect unto that which is the principal part thereof 3. This Inherent Righteousness taking it for that which is habitual and actual is the same with our Sanctification neither is there any difference between them only they are divers names of the same thing For our Sanctification is the inherent Renovation of our Natures exerting and acting it self in newness of Life or Obedience unto God in Christ and works of Righteousness But Sanctification and Justification are in the Scripture perpetually distinguished whatever respect of causality the one of them may have unto the other And those who do confound them as the Papists do do not so much dispute about the Nature of Justification as endeavour to prove that indeed there is no such thing as Justification at all For that which would serve most to enforce it namely the pardon of sin they place in the exclusion and extinction of it by the Infusion of inherent Grace which doth not belong unto Justification 4. By this inherent Personal Righteousness we may be said several ways to be justified As 1 In our own Consciences in as much as it is an Evidence in us and unto us of our Participation of the Grace of God in Christ Jesus and of our Acceptance with him which hath no small Influence into our Peace So speaks the Apostle Our rejoycing is this the Testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly Wisdom but by the Grace of God we have had our Conversation in the World 2. Cor. 1.12 who yet disclaims any confidence therein as unto his Justification before God For saith he although I know nothing by my self yet am I not thereby justified 1 Cor. 4.4 2 Hereby may we be said to be justified before men that is acquitted of evils laid unto our charge and approved as righteous and unblameable For the state of things is so in the World as that the Professors of the Gospel ever were and ever will be evil spoken of as evil doers The Rule given them to acquit themselves so as that at length they may be acquitted and justified by all that are not absolutely blinded and hardened in wickedness is that of an holy and fruitful walking in
unto the ultimate manifestation of Divine Glory in the Creation and Guidance of all things are sufficiently manifest And whence it appears how little force there is in that Argument which some pretend to be of so great weight in this cause As every one they say shall be judged of God at the last day in the same way and manner or on the same Ground is he justified of God in this life But by Works and not by Faith alone every one shall be judged at the last day Wherefore by Works and not by Faith alone every one is justified before God in this life For 1. It is no where said that we shall be judged at the last day ex operibus but only that God will render unto men secundum opera But God doth not justifie any in this life secundum opera Being justified freely by his Grace And not according to the Works of Righteousness which we have done And we are every where said to be justified in this life ex fide per fidem but no where propter fidem or that God justifieth us secundum fidem by Faith but not for our Faith nor according unto our Faith And we are not to depart from the expressions of the Scripture where such a difference is constantly observed 2. It is somewhat strange that a man should be judged at the last day and justified in this life just in the same way and manner that is with respect unto Faith and Works when the Scripture doth constantly ascribe our Justification before God unto Faith without Works and the Judgment at the last day is said to be according unto Works without any mention of Faith 3. If Justification and eternal Judgment proceed absolute-on the same Grounds Reasons and Causes then if men had not done what they shall be condemned for doing at the last day they should have been justified in this life But many shall be condemned only for sins against the light of nature Rom. 2.12 as never having the written Law or Gospel made known unto them Wherefore unto such persons to abstain from sins against the light of nature would be sufficient unto their Justification without any knowledge of Christ or the Gospel 4. This Proposition that God pardons men their Sins gives them the Adoption of Children with a right unto the Heavenly Inheritance according to their Works is not only foraign to the Gospel but contradictory unto it and destructive of it as contrary unto all express Testimonies of the Scripture both in the old Testament and the new where these things are spoken of But that God judgeth all men and rendreth unto all men at the last Judgment according unto their Works is true and affirmed in the Scripture 5. In our Justification in this life by Faith Christ is considered as our Propitiation and Advocate as he who hath made Atonement for sin and brought in everlasting Righteousness But at the last day and in the last Judgment he is considered only as the Judge 6. The end of God in our Justification is the Glory of his Grace Eph. 1.6 But the end of God in the last Judgment is the Glory of his remunerative Righteousness 2 Tim. 4.8 7. The Representation that is made of the final Judgment Math. 7. and Chap. 25. is only of the visible Church And therein the plea of Faith as to the profession of it is common unto all and is equally made by all Upon that plea of Faith it is put unto the trial whether it were sincere true Faith or no or only that which was dead and barren And this trial is made solely by the fruits and effects of it and otherwise in the publick declaration of things unto all it cannot be made Otherwise the Faith whereby we are justified comes not into Judgment at the last day See Joh. 5.24 with Mark 16.16 CHAP. VII Imputation and the Nature of it with the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ in particular THe first express Record of the Justification of any sinner is of Abraham Others were justified before him from the Beginning and there is that affirmed of them which sufficiently evidenceth them so to have been But this Prerogative was reserved for the Father of the Faithful that his Justification and the express way and manner of it should be first entered on the Sacred Record So it is Gen. 15.6 He believed in the Lord and it was counted unto him for Righteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was accounted unto him or imputed unto him for Righteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was counted reckoned imputed And it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed unto him but for us also unto whom it shall be imputed if we believe Rom. 4.23 24. Wherefore the first express Declaration of the nature of Justification in the Scripture affirms it to be by Imputation The Imputation of somewhat unto Righteousness And this done in that place and instance which is Recorded on purpose as the president and example of all those that shall be justified As he was justified so are we and no otherwise Under the new Testament there was a necessity of a more full and clear Declaration of the Doctrine of it For it is among the first and most principal parts of that Heavenly mystery of Truth which was to be brought to light by the Gospel And besides there was from the first a strong and Dangerous Opposition made unto it For this matter of Justification the Doctrine of it and what necessarily belongs thereunto was that whereon the Jewish Church broke off from God refused Christ and the Gospel perishing in their sins as is expresly declared Rom. 9.31 10.3 4. And in like manner a dislike of it an Opposition unto it ever was and ever will be a principle and cause of the Apostasie of any professing Church from Christ and the Gospel that falls under the power and deceit of them as it fell out afterwards in the Churches of the Galatians But in this state the Doctrine of Justification was fully declared stated and vindicated by the Apostle Paul in a peculiar manner And he doth it especially by affirming and proving that we have the Righteousness whereby and wherewith we are justified by Imputation or that our Justification consists in the non-Imputation of sin and the Imputation of Righteousness But yet although the first Recorded instance of Justification and which was so recorded that it might be an example and represent the Justification of all that should be justified unto the end of the World is expressed by Imputation and Righteousness imputed and the Doctrine of it in that great case wherein the eternal welfare of the Church of the Jews or their ruine was concerned is so expressed by the Apostle yet is it so fallen out in our days that nothing in Religion is more maligned more reproached more despised then the Imputation of Righteousness unto us or an Imputed Righteousness A putative Righteousness the
it And what I shall attempt unto this purpose I do it under this perswasion that the life and continuance of any Church on the one hand and its Apostasie or Ruine on the other do depend in an eminent manner on the Preservation or Rejection of the Truth in this Article of Religion and I shall add as it hath been professed received and believed in the Church of England in former days The first thing we are to consider is the meaning of these words to Impute and Imputation For from a meer plain Declaration hereof it will appear that sundry things charged on a supposition of the Imputation we plead for are vain and groundless or the Charge it self is so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word first used to this purpose signifies to think to esteem to judge or to refer a thing or matter unto any to impute or to be imputed for Good or Evil. See Levit. 7.18 chap. 17.4 And Psal. 106.31 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it was counted reckoned imputed unto him for Righteousness To judge or esteem this or that Good or Evil to belong unto him to be his The Lxx. express it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as do the Writers of the New Testament also And these are rendred by reputare imputare acceptum ferre tribuere assignare ascribere But there is a different signification among these words In particular to be reputed Righteous and to have Righteousness imputed differ as cause and effect For that any may be reputed Righteous that is be judged or esteemed so to be there must be a real foundation of that Reputation or it is a mistake and not a right Judgment as a man may be reputed to be wise who is a fool or reputed to be rich who is a beggar Wherefore he that is reputed Righteous must either have a Righteousness of his own or another antecedently imputed unto him as the foundation of that Reputation Wherefore to impute Righteousness unto one that hath none of his own is not to repute him to be Righteous who is indeed Unrighteous but it is to communicate a Righteousness unto him that he may rightly and justly be esteemed judged or reputed Righteous Imputare is a word that the Latine Tongue owns in the sense wherein it is used by Divines Optime de pessimis meruisti ad quos pervenerit incorrupta rerum fides magno Authori suo imputata Senec. ad Mart. And Plin. lib. 18. cap. 1. In his Apology for the Earth our common Parent nostris eam criminibus urgemus culpamque nostram illi imputamus In their sense to impute any thing unto another is if it be evil to charge it on him to burden him with it so saith Pliny we impute our own faults to the Earth or charge them upon it If it be Good it is to ascribe it unto him as his own whether originally it were so or no magno Authori imputata Vasquez in Thom. 22. Tom. 2. Disp. 132. attempts the sense of the word but confounds it with reputare Imputare aut reputare quidquam alicui est idem atque inter ea quae sunt ipsius ad eum pertinent connumerare recensere This is reputare properly imputare includes an Act antecedent unto this accounting or esteeming a thing to belong unto any Person But whereas that may be imputed unto us which is really our own antecedently unto that Imputation the word must needs have a double sense as it hath in the Instances given out of Latine Authors now mentioned And 1. To Impute unto us that which was really ours antecedently unto that Imputation includes two things in it 1 An Acknowledgment or Judgment that the thing so imputed is really and truly ours or in us He that Imputes Wisdom or Learning unto any man doth in the first place acknowledge him to be Wise or Learned 2 A dealing with them according unto it whether it be Good or Evil. So when upon a Trial a man is acquitted because he is found Righteous first he is judged and esteemed Righteous and then dealt with as a Righteous Person his Righteousness is imputed unto him See this exemplified Gen. 30.33 2. To Impute unto us that which is not our own antecedently unto that Imputation includes also in it two things 1 A Grant or Donation of the thing it self unto us to be ours on some just Ground and Foundation For a thing must be made ours before we can justly be dealt withall according unto what is required on the Account of it 2 A Will of dealing with us or an actual dealing with us according unto that which is so made ours For in this matter whereof we treat the most Holy and Righteous God doth not justifie any that is absolve them from sin pronounce them Righteous and thereon grant unto them Right and Title unto Eternal Life but upon the interveniency of a true and compleat Righteousness truly and compleatly made the Righteousness of them that are to be justified in order of nature antecedently unto their Justification But these things will be yet made more clear by Instances and it is necessary they should be so 1. There is an Imputation unto us of that which is really our own inherent in us performed by us antecedently unto that Imputation and this whether it be Evil or Good The Rule and Nature hereof is given and expressed Ezek. 18.20 The Righteousness of the Righteous shall be upon him the Wickedness of the Wicked shall be upon him Instances we have of both sorts 1 In the Imputation of sin when the Person guilty of it is so judged and reckoned a sinner as to be dealt withall accordingly This Imputation Shimei deprecated 2 Sam. 19.19 He said unto the King Let not my Lord impute Iniquity unto me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word used in the expression of the Imputation of Righteousness Gen. 15.6 neither do thou remember what thy Servant did perversely For thy Servant doth know that I have sinned He was Guilty and acknowledged his Guilt but deprecates the Imputation of it in such a sentence concerning him as his sin deserved So Stephen deprecated the Imputation of sin unto them that stoned him whereof they were really guilty Act. 7.60 Lay not this sin to their charge impute it not unto them As on the other side Zechariah the Son of Jehojada who died in the same cause and the same kind of death with Stephen prayed that the sin of those which slew him might be charged on them 2 Chron. 24.22 Wherefore to impute sin is to lay it unto the charge of any and to deal with them according unto its desert To impute that which is Good unto any is to judge and acknowledge it so to be theirs and thereon to deal with them in whom it is according unto its respect unto the Law of God The Righteousness of the Righteous shall be upon him So Jacob provided that his Righteousness
grant what is the proper Work and Duty of a surety and who the Lord Jesus was a surety for and it is evident that nothing more proper or pertinent could be mentioned by him when he was in the Declaration of that office 2 He confesseth that by his Exposition of this suretiship of Christ as making him a surety for God he contradicteth the nature and only notion of a surety among men For such a one he acknowledgeth doth nothing but in the defect and unability of them for whom he is ingaged and doth undertake He is to pay that which they owe and to do what is to be done by them which they cannot perform And if this be not the notion of a surety in this place the Apostle makes use of a word no where else used in the whole Scripture to teach us that which it doth never signifie among men which is improbable and absurd For the sole Reason why he did make use of it was that from the nature and notion of it amongst men in others cases we may understand the signification of it what he intends by it and what under that name he ascribes unto the Lord Jesus 3 He hath no way to solve the Apostles mention of Christ being a surety in the description of his Priestly Office but by overthrowing the Nature of that Office also For to confirm this absurd notion that Christ as a Priest was a surety for God he would have us believe that the Priesthood of Christ consists in his making effectual unto us the Promises of God or his effectual communicating of the Good things promised unto us the falshood of which notion really destructive of the Priesthood of Christ I have elsewhere at large detected and confuted Wherefore seeing the Lord Christ is a surety of the Covenant as a Priest and all the sacerdotal Actings of Christ have God for their immediate Object and are performed with him on our behalf he was a surety for us also A Surety Sponsor Vas Praes Fidejussor for us the Lord Christ was by his voluntary undertaking out of his rich Grace and Love to do answer and perform all that is required on our parts that we may enjoy the Benefits of the Covenant the Grace and Glory prepared proposed and promised in it in the way and manner determined on by Divine Wisdom And this may be reduced unto two Heads 1. His answering for our Transgressions against the first Covenant 2. His purchase and procurement of the Grace of the New He was made a Curse for us that the Blessing of Abraham might come upon us Gal. 3.13 1 15. 1. He undertook as they surety of the Covenant to answer for all the sins of those who are to be and are made partakers of the Benefits of it That is to undergo the punishment due unto their sins to make atonement for them by offering himself a propitiatory sacrifice for the Expiation of their sins redeeming them by the Price of his Blood from their state of misery and bondage under the Law and the Curse of it Isa. 53.4 5 6 10 Math. 20.28 1 Tim. 2.6 1 Cor. 6.20 Rom. 3.25 26. Heb. 10.5 6 7 8. Rom. 8.2 3. 2 Cor. 5.19 20 21. Gal. 3.13 And this was absolutely necessary that the Grace and Glory prepared in the Covenant might be communicated unto us Without this undertaking of his and performance of it the Righteousness and Faithfulness of God would not permit that sinners such as had Apostatized from him despised his Authority and rebelled against him falling thereby under the sentence and curse of the Law should again be received into his Favour and made Partakers of Grace and Glory This therefore the Lord Christ took upon himself as the surety of the Covenant 2. That those who were to be taken into this Covenant should receive Grace enabling them to comply with the Terms of it fulfill its Conditions and yield the Obedience which God required therein For by the Ordination of God he was to procure and did merit and procure for them the Holy Spirit and all needful supplies of Grace to make them new Creatures and enable them to yield Obedience unto God from a new principle of spiritual Life and that faithfully unto the End So was he the surety of this better Testament But all things belonging hereunto will be handled at large in the place from whence as I said these are taken as suitable unto our present occasion But some have other notions of these things For they say that Christ by his Death and his Obedience therein whereby he offered himself a sacrifice of sweet smelling savour unto God procured for us the New Covenant or as one speaks all that we have by the Death of Christ is that thereunto we owe the Covenant of Grace For herein he did and suffered what God required and freely appointed him to do and suffer Not that the Justice of God required any such thing with respect unto their sins for whom he died and in whose stead or to bestead whom he suffered but what by a free Constitution of Divine Wisdom and Soveraignty was appointed unto him Hereon God was pleased to remit the Terms of the Old Covenant and to enter into a New Covenant with mankind upon Terms suited unto our Reason possible unto our Abilities and every way advantageous unto us For these Terms are Faith and sincere Obedience or such an Assent unto the Truth of Divine Revelations as is effectual in Obedience unto the Will of God contained in them upon the encouragement given thereunto in the Promises of Eternal Life or a future Reward made therein On the performance of these Conditions our Justification Adoption and future Glory do depend For they are that Righteousness before God whereon he pardons our sins and accepts our persons as if we were perfectly Righteous Wherefore by this procuring the New Covenant for us which they ascribe unto the death of Christ they intend the abrogation of the old Covenant or of the Law or at least such a Derogation from it that it shall no more oblige us either unto sinless Obedience or Punishment nor require a perfect Righteousness unto our Justification before God and the Constitution of a new Law of Obedience accommodated unto our present state and condition on whose observance all the Promises of the Gospel do depend Others say that in the death of Christ there was real satisfaction made unto God not to the Law or unto God according to what the Law required but unto God absolutely That is He did what God was well pleased and satisfied withall without any respect unto his Justice or the Curse of the Law And they add that hereon the whole Righteousness of Christ is imputed unto us so far as that we are made Partakers of the Benefits thereof And moreover that the way of the Communication of them unto us is by the New Covenant which by his Death the Lord Christ procured For the Conditions
If it be otherwise then it is plain that that Righteousness it self can never be made ours by believing only the fruits and effects of it may be suspended on our Believing whereby we may be made Partakers of them Yea if Christ made any such satisfaction for us as is pretendrd it is really ours without any farther Imputation For being performed for us and in our stead it is the highest injustice not to have us accounted pardoned and acquitted without any farther either Imputation on the part of God or Faith on ours These things I have transcribed out of Socinus De Servator lib. 4. cap. 2 3 4 5. which I would not have done but that I find others to have gone before me therein though to another purpose And he concludes with a confidence which others also seem in some measure to have learned of him For he saith unto his Adversary Haec tua tuorumque sententia adeo foeda execrabilis est ut pestilentiorem errorem post homines natos in populo Dei extitisse non credam speaking of the satisfaction of Christ and the Imputation of it unto Believers And indeed his Serpentine wit was fertile in the Invention of cavils against all the mysteries of the Gospel Nor was he obliged by any one of them so as to contradict himself in what he opposed concerning any other of them For denying the Deity of Christ his Satisfaction Sacrifice Merit Righteousness and overthrowing the whole nature of his Mediation nothing stood in his way which he had a mind to oppose But I somewhat wonder how others can make use of his Inventions in this kind who if they considered aright their proper tendency they will find them to be absolutely destructive of what they seem to own So it is in this present Objection against the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ If it hath any force in it as indeed it hath not it is to prove that the satisfaction of Christ was impossible and so he intended it But it will be easily removed I answer first in general that the whole fallacy of this Objection lies in the opposing one part of the design and method of Gods grace in this mystery of our Justification unto another or the taking of one part of it to be the whole which as to its Efficacy and Perfection depends on somewhat else Hereof we warned the Reader in our previous discourses For the whole of it is a supposition that the satisfaction of Christ if there be any such thing must have its whole effect without Believing on our part which is contrary unto the whole Declaration of the will of God in the Gospel But I shall principally respect them who are pleased to make use of this Objection and yet do not deny the satisfaction of Christ. And I say 1. When the Lord Christ died for us and offered himself as a Propitiatory Sacrifice God laid all our sins on him Isa. 53.6 And he then bare them all in his own body on the Tree 1 Pet. 2.24 Then he suffered in our stead and made full satisfaction for all our sins For he appeared to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself Heb. 9.26 and by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are Sanctified Chap. 10.14 He whose sins were not actually and absolutely satisfied for in that one Offering of Christ shall never have them expiated unto Eternity For henceforth he dieth no more there is no more Sacrifice for sin The Repetition of a Sacrifice for sin which must be the Crucifying of Christ afresh overthrowes the foundation of Christian Religion 2. Notwithstanding this full plenary satisfaction once made for the sins of the World that shall be saved yet all men continue equally to be born by nature Children of Wrath and whilst they believe not the Wrath of God abideth on them Joh. 3.36 that is they are obnoxious unto and under the Curse of the Law Wherefore on the only making of that satisfaction no one for whom it was made in the design of God can be said to have suffered in Christ nor to have an interest in his satisfaction nor by any way or means be made partaker of it antecedently unto another Act of God in its Imputation unto him For this is but one part of the purpose of Gods Grace as unto our Justification by the Blood of Christ namely that he by his death should make satisfaction for our sins Nor is it to be separated from what also belongs unto it in the same purpose of God Wherefore from the Position or Grant of the satisfaction of Christ no Argument can be taken unto the negation of a consequential Act of its Imputation unto us nor therefore of the necessity of our Faith in the believing and receiving of it which is no less the appointment of God than it was that Christ should make that satisfaction Wherefore 3. That which the Lord Christ paid for us is as truly paid as if we had paid it our selves So he speaks Psal. 69.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He made no spoil of the glory of God what was done of that nature by us he returned it unto him And what he underwent and suffered he underwent and suffered in our stead But yet the act of God in laying our sins on Christ conveyed no actual Right and Title to us unto what he did and suffered They are not immediately thereon nor by virtue thereof ours or esteemed ours because God hath appointed somewhat else not only antecedent thereunto but as the means of it unto his own Glory These things both as unto their being and order depend on the free Ordination of God But yet 4. It cannot be said that this satisfaction was made for us on such a condition as should absolutely suspend the event and render it uncertain whether it should ever be for us or no. Such a constitution may be Righteous in pecuniary solutions A man may lay down a great sum of money for the discharge of another on such a condition as may never be fulfilled For on the absolute failure of the condition his money may and ought to be restored unto him whereon he hath received no injury or damage But in poenal suffering for crimes and sins there can be no righteous constitution that shall make the event and efficacy of it to depend on a Condition absolutely uncertain and which may not come to pass or be fulfilled For if the Condition fail no Recompence can be made unto him that hath suffered Wherefore the way of the Application of the satisfaction of Christ unto them for whom it was made is sure and stedfast in the purpose of God 5. God hath appointed that there shall be an immediate Foundation of the Imputation of the Satisfaction and Righteousness of Christ unto us whereon we may be said to have done and suffered in him what he did and suffered in our stead by that Grant Donation and Imputation of it unto us
However I know not of any that say we are accounted of God in Judgment personally to have done what Christ did and it may have a sense that is false namely that God should judge us in our own persons to have done those Acts which we never did But what Christ did for us and in our stead is imputed and communicated unto us as we coalesce into one mystical person with him by Faith and thereon are we justified And this absolutely overthrows all Justification by the Law or the Works of it though the Law be established fulfilled and accomplished that we may be justified Neither can any on the supposition of the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ truly stated be said to merit their own Salvation Satisfaction and Merit are Adjuncts of the Righteousness of Christ as formally inherent in his own person and as such it cannot be transfused into another Wherefore as it is imputed unto individual Believers it hath not those properties accompanying of it which belong only unto its existence in the person of the Son of God But this was spoken unto before as much also of what was necessary to be here repeated These Objections I have in this place taken notice of because the answers given unto them do tend to the farther explanation of that Truth whose confirmation by Arguments and Testimonies of Scripture I shall now proceed unto CHAP. X. Arguments for Justification by the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ. The first Argument from the Nature and Vse of our own Personal Righteousness THere is a Justification of convinced sinners on their Believing Hereon are their sins pardoned their persons accepted with God and a Right is given unto them unto the Heavenly Inheritance This state they are immediately taken into upon their Faith or Believing in Jesus Christ. And a state it is of actual peace with God These things at present I take for granted and they are the Foundation of all that I shall plead in the present Argument And I do take notice of them because some seem to the best of my understanding to deny any real actual Justification of sinners on their Believing in this life For they make Justification to be only a general conditional sentence declared in the Gospel which as unto its Execution is delayed unto the day of Judgment For whilst men are in this world the whole Condition of it being not fulfilled they cannot be partakers of it or be actually and absolutely justified Hereon it follows that indeed there is no real state of assured Rest and Peace with God by Jesus Christ for any persons in this life This at present I shall not dispute about because it seems to me to overthrow the whole Gospel the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and all the comfort of Believers about which I hope we are not as yet called to contend Our Enquiry is how convinced sinners do on their Believing obtain the Remission of sins Acceptance with God and a Right unto Eternal Life And if this can no other way be done but by the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ unto them then thereby alone are they justified in the sight of God And this Assertion proceedeth on a supposition that there is a Righteousness required unto the Justification of any person whatever For whereas God in the Justification of any person doth declare him to be acquitted from all crimes laid unto his charge and to stand as Righteous in his sight it must be on the consideration of a Righteousness whereon any man is so acquitted and declared for the Judgment of God is according unto Truth This we have sufficiently evidenced before in that juridical procedure wherein the Scripture represents unto us the Justification of a Believing sinner And if there be no other Righteousness whereby we may be thus justified but only that of Christ imputed unto us then thereby must we be justified or not at all And if there be any such other Righteousness it must be our own inherent in us and wrought out by us For these two kinds inherent and imputed Righteousness our own and Christs divide the whole nature of Righteousness as to the End enquired after And that there is no such inherent Righteousness no such Righteousness of our own whereby we may be justified before God I shall prove in the first place And I shall do it first from express Testimonies of Scripture and then from the consideration of the thing it self And two things I shall premise hereunto 1. That I shall not consider this Righteousness of our own absolutely in it self but as it may be conceived to be improved and advanced by its Relation unto the satisfaction and merit of Christ For many will grant that our inherent Righteousness is not of it self sufficient to justifie us in the sight of God But take it as it hath value and worth communicated unto it from the merit of Christ and so it is accepted unto that End and judged worthy of Eternal Life We could not merit Life and Salvation had not Christ merited that Grace for us whereby we may do so and merited also that our Works should be of such a Dignity with respect unto Reward We shall therefore allow what worth can be reasonably thought to be communicated unto this Righteousness from its respect unto the Merit of Christ. 2. Whereas persons of all sorts and parties do take various ways in the assignation of an interest in our Justification unto our own Righteousness so as that no parties are agreed about it nor many of the same mind among themselves as might easily be manifested in the Papists Socinians and others I shall so far as it is possible in the ensuing Arguments have respect unto them all For my design is to prove that it hath no such Interest in our Justification before God as that the Righteousness of Christ should not be esteemed the only Righteousness whereon we are justified And first we shall produce some of those many Testimonies which may be pleaded unto this purpose Psal. 130.3 4. If thou Lord shouldst mark Iniquities O Lord who should stand But there is Forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared There is an Enquiry included in these words how a man how any man may be justified before God how he may stand that is in the presence of God and be accepted with him How he shall stand in Judgment as it is explained Psal. 1.5 The wicked shall not stand in the Judgment shall not be acquitted on their Trial. That which first offereth it self unto this End is his own Obedience For this the Law requires of him in the first place and this his own Conscience calls upon him for But the Psalmist plainly declares that no man can thence manage a plea for his Justification with any success And the Reason is because notwithstanding the best of the Obedience of the best of men there are Iniquities found with them against the Lord
essence of it whereunto alone respect is had in this Law by any thing that can fall out And although God might superadd unto the original Obligations of this Law what Arbitrary commands he pleased such as did not necessarily proceed or arise from the Relation between him and us which might be and be continued without them yet would they be resolved into that Principle of this Law that God in all things was absolutely to be trusted and obeyed 7. Known unto God are all his Works from the foundation of the World In the constitution of this order of things he made it possible and foresaw it would be future that man would rebell against the preceptive power of this Law and disturb that order of things wherein he was placed under his moral Rule This gave occasion unto that effect of infinite Divine Righteousness in constituting the punishment that man should fall under upon his Transgression of this Law Neither was this an effect of Arbitrary will and pleasure any more than the Law it self was Upon the supposition of the Creation of man the Law mentioned was necessary from all the Divine Properties of the nature of God And upon a supposition that man would Transgress that Law God being now considered as his Ruler and Governour the Constitution of the punishment due unto his Sin and Transgression of it was a necessary effect of Divine Righteousness This it would not have been had the Law it self been Arbitrary But that being necessary so was the penalty of this Transgression Wherefore the constitution of this penalty is liable to no more change alteration or abrogation then the Law it self without an alteration in the state and relation between God and man 8. This is that Law which our Lord Jesus Christ came not to destroy but to fulfil that he might be the end of it for Righteousness unto them that do believe This Law he abrogated not nor could do so without a Destruction of the Relation that is between God and man arising from or ensuing necessarily on their distinct Beings and Properties But as this cannot be destroyed so the Lord Christ came unto a contrary end namely to repair and restore it where it was weakned Wherefore 9. This Law the Law of Sinless perfect Obedience with its sentence of the punishment of Death on all Transgressors doth and must abide in force for ever in this World For there is no more required hereunto but that God be God and Man be Man Yet shall this be farther proved 1. There is nothing not one word in the Scripture intimating any alteration in or Abrogation of this Law so as that any thing should not be duty which it makes to be duty or any thing not be sin which it makes to be sin either as unto matter or degrees or that the thing which it makes to be sin or which is sin by the Rule of it should not merit and deserve that punishment which is declared in the sanction of it or threatned by it The wages of sin is Death If any Testimony of Scripture can be produced unto either of these purposes namely that either any thing is not sin in the way of Omission or Commission in the matter or manner of its performance which is made to be so by this Law or that any such sin or any thing that would have been sin by this Law is exempted from the punishment threatned by it as unto merit or desert it shall be attended unto It is therefore in universal force towards all mankind There is no Relief in this case But behold the Lamb of God In exception hereunto it is pleaded that when it was first given unto Adam it was the Rule and Instrument of a Covenant between God and man a Covenant of Works and perfect Obedience But upon the entrance of sin it ceased to have the nature of a Covenant unto any And it is so ceased that on an impossible supposition that any man should fulfil the perfect Righteousness of it yet should he not be justified or obtain the benefit of the Covenant thereby It is not therefore only become ineffectual unto us as a Covenant by reason of our weakness and disability to perform it but it is ceased in its own nature so to be But these things as they are not unto our present purpose so are they wholly unproved For 1. Our Discourse is not about the Foederal adjunct of the Law but about its moral nature only It is enough that as a Law it continueth to oblige all mankind unto perfect Obedience under its Original penalty For hence it will unavoidably follow that unless the commands of it be complied withal and fulfilled the penalty will fall on all that Transgress it And those who grant that this Law is still in force as unto its being a Rule of Obedience or as unto its requiring Duties of us do grant all that we desire For it requires no Obedience but what it did in its Original constitution that is sinless and perfect and it requires no Duty nor prohibits any sin but under the Penalty of Death upon disobedience 2. It is true that he who is once a sinner if he should afterwards yield all that perfect Obedience unto God that the Law requires he could not thereby obtain the Benefit of the Promise of the Covenant But the sole Reason of it is because he is antecedently a sinner and so obnoxious unto the Curse of the Law And no man can be obnoxious unto its Curse and have a right unto its Promise at the same time But so to lay the supposition that the same person is by any means free from the Curse due unto sin and then to deny that upon the performance of that perfect sinless Obedience which the Law requires that he should not have right unto the Promise of Life thereby is to deny the Truth of God and to reflect the highest dishonour upon his Justice Jesus Christ himself was justified by this Law And it is immutably true that he who doth the things of it shall live therein 3. It is granted that man continued not in the Observation of this Law as it was the Rule of the Covenant between God and him The Covenant it was not but the Rule of it which that it should be was superadded unto its Being as a Law For the Covenant comprized things that were not any part of a Result from the necessary Relation of God and Man Wherefore man by his sin as unto Demerit may be said to break this Covenant and as unto any Benefit unto themselves to disannul it It is also true that God did never formally and absolutely renew or give again this Law as a Covenant a second time Nor was there any need that so he should do unless it were declaratively only for so it was renewed at Sinai For the whole of it being an Emanation of Eternal Right and Truth it abides and must abide in full force for
for himself in a way of Duty And the truth is if the Obedience of Christ had respect unto himself only that is If he yielded it unto God on the necessity of his condition and did not do it for us I see no foundation left to assert his merit upon no more then I do for the Imputation of it unto them that believe That which we plead is That the Lord Christ fulfilled the whole Law for us he did not only undergo the penalty of it due unto our sins but also yielded that perfect Obedience which it did require And herein I shall not immix my self in the debate of the distinction between the Active and Passive Obedience of Christ. For he exercised the highest Active Obedience in his suffering when he offered himself to God through the Eternal Spirit And all his Obedience considering his Person was mixed with suffering as a part of his Exinanition and Humiliation whence it is said That though he were a Son yet learned he obedience by the things that he suffered And however doing and suffering are in various categories of things yet Scripture testimonies are not to be regulated by Philosophical artifices and terms And it must needs be said that the Sufferings of Christ as they were purely penal are imperfectly called His passive Righteousness For all Righteousness is either in habit or in action whereof suffering is neither nor is any Man righteous or so esteemed from what he suffereth Neither do sufferings give satisfaction unto the commands of the Law which require only Obedience And hence it will unavoidably follow that we have need of more then the meer sufferings of Christ whereby we may be justified before God if so be that any Righteousness be required thereunto But the whole of what I intend is That Christs fulfilling of the Law in Obedience unto its commands is no less imputed unto us for our Justification then his undergoing the Penalty of it is I cannot but judge it sounds ill in the ears of all Christians That the Obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ as our Mediator and Surety unto the whole Law of God was for himself alone and not for us or that what he did therein was not that he might be the end of the Law for Righteousness unto them that do believe nor a means of the fulfilling of the Righteousness of the Law in us especially considering that the Faith of the Church is That he was given to us born to us that for us Men and for our salvation he came down from Heaven and did and suffered what was required of him But whereas some who deny the Imputation of the Obedience of Christ unto us for our Justification do insist principally on the second thing mentioned namely the unusefulness of it I shall under this first part of the charge consider only the Arguings of Socinus which is the whole of what some at present do indeavor to perplex the truth withal To this purpose is his discourse Part 3. cap. 5. de Servat Jam vero manifestum est Christum quia homo natus fuerat quidem ut inquit Paulus factus sub lege legi divinae inquam quae aeterna immutabilis est non minus quam caeteri homines obnoxium fuisse Alioqui potuisset Christus aeternam Dei legem negligere sive etiam universam si voluisset infringere quod impium est vel cogitare Immo ut supra alicubi explicatum fuit nisi ipse Christus legi divinae servandae obnoxius fuisset ut ex Pauli verbis colligitur non potuisset iis qui ei legi servandae obnoxii sunt opem ferre eos ad immortalitatis firmam spem traducere Non differebat igitur hac quidem ex parte Christus quando homo natus erat a caeteris hominibus Quocirca nec etiam pro aliis magis quam quilibet alius homo legem divinam conservando satisfacere potuit quippe qui ipse eam servare omnino debuit I have transcribed his words that it may appear with whose weapons some young Disputers among our selves do contend against the Truth The substance of his Plea is That our Lord Jesus Christ was for himself or on his own account obliged unto all that obedience which he performed And this he indeavors to prove with this Reason Because if it were otherwise then he might if he would have neglected the while Law of God and have broken it at his pleasure For he forgot to consider That if he were not obliged unto it upon his own account but was so on ours whose cause he had undertaken the obligation on him unto most perfect obedience was equal to what it would have been had he been originally obliged on his own account However hence he infers that what he did could not be for us because it was so for himself no more then what any other man is bound to do in a way of duty for himself can be esteemed to have been done also for another For he will allow of none of those considerations of the Person of Christ which makes what he did and suffered of another nature and efficacy then what can be done or suffered by any other Man All that he adds in the process of his discourse is That what ever Christ did that was not required by the Law in general was upon the especial command of God and so done for himself whence it cannot be imputed unto us And hereby he excludes the Church from any benefit by the Mediation of Christ but only what consists in his Doctrine Example and the Exercise of his Power in Heaven for our good which was the thing that he aimed at But we shall consider those also which make use of his Arguments though not as yet openly unto all his Ends. To clear the Truth herein the things insuing must be observed 1. The Obedience we treat of was the Obedience of Christ the Mediator But the Obedience of Christ as the Mediator of the Covenant was the Obedience of his Person For God redeemed his Church with his own Blood Acts 20.28 It was performed in the Humane Nature but the Person of Christ was he that performed it As in the Person of a Man some of his acts as to the immediate principle of operation are acts of the Body and some are so of the Soul yet in their performance and accomplishment are they the acts of the Person So the Acts of Christ in his Mediation as to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or immediate operation were the actings of his distinct Natures some of the Divine and some of the Humane immediately But as unto their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the perfecting efficacy of them they were the Acts of his whole Person His Acts who was that Person and whose Power of Operation was a property of his Person Wherefore the Obedience of Christ which we plead to have been for us was the Obedience of the Son of God but
5.15 Eph. 2.4 8 9. 2 Tim. 1.9 Tit. 3.4 5. Being justified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the LXX render the Hebrew particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without price without merit without cause and sometimes it is used for without end that is what is done in vain as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used by the Apostle Gal. 2.21 without price or reward Gen. 29.15 Exod. 21.22 2 Kings 24.25 without cause or merit or any means of procurement 1 Sam. 19.5 2 Sam. 24.24 Psal. 69.4 Psal. 102. In this sense it is rendred by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 15.25 The design of the word is to exclude all consideration of any thing in us that should be the cause or condition of our justification 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 favour absolutely considered may have respect unto somewhat in him towards whom it is shewed so it is said that Joseph found grace or favour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the eyes of Potiphar Gen. 29.4 but he found it not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without any consideration or cause for he saw that the Lord was with him and made all that he did to prosper in his hand v. 3. But no words can be found out to free our justification before God from all respect unto any thing in our selves but only what is added expresly as the means of its participation on our part through faith in his blood more emphatical than these here used by the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 freely by his grace And with whom this is not admitted as exclusive of all Works or Obedience of our own of all conditions preparations and merit I shall despair of ever expressing my conceptions about it intelligibly unto them Having asserted this Righteousness of God as the cause and means of our justification before him in opposition unto all Righteousness of our own and declared the cause of the communication of it unto us on the part of God to be meer free Sovereign grace the means on our part whereby according unto the ordination of God we do receive or are really made partakers of that Righteousness of God whereon we are justified is by faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is by faith alone Nothing else is proposed nothing else required unto this end It is replied that there is no intimation that is by faith alone or that Faith is asserted to be the means of our Justification exclusively unto other Graces or Works But there is such an exclusion directly included in the description given of that faith whereby we are justified with respect unto its especial object by faith in his blood For Faith respecting the blood of Christ as that whereby propitiation was made for Sin in which respect alone the Apostle affirms that we are justified through faith admits of no association with any other Graces or Duties Neither is it any part of their nature to fix on the blood of Christ for Justification before God wherefore they are all here directly excluded And those who think otherwise may try how they can introduce them into this context without an evident corrupting of it and perverting of its sense Neither will the other evasion yield our Adversaries the least relief namely that by faith not the single grace of Faith is intended but the whole obedience required in the new Covenant Faith and Works together For as all works whatever as our works are excluded in the declaration of the causes of our Justification on the part of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 freely by his grace by vertue of that great Rule Rom. 11.6 If it be of grace then no more of works otherwise Grace is no more Grace so the determination of the object of faith in its act or duty whereon we are justified namely the blood of Christ is absolutely exclusive of all Works from an interest in that duty For whatever looks unto the blood of Christ for Justification is faith and nothing else And as for the calling of it a single act or duty I refer the Reader unto our preceding discourse about the nature of justifying Faith Three things the Apostle inferreth from the declaration he had made of the Nature and Causes of our Justification before God all of them further illustrating the meaning and sense of his words 1. That Boasting is excluded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 27. Apparent it is from hence and from what he affirms concerning Abraham Chap. 4. v. 2. that a great part at least of the controversie he had about Justification was whether it did admit of any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in those that were justified And it is known that the Jews placed all their Hopes in those things whereof they thought they could boast namely their Priviledges and their Righteousness But from the declaration made of the Nature and Causes of Justification the Apostle infers that all Boasting whatever is utterly shut out of doors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Boasting in our language is the name of a vice and is never used in a good sense But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the words used by the Apostle are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of an indifferent signification and as they are applied may denote a Vertue as well as a Vice So they do Heb. 3.6 But alwayes and in all places they respect something that is peculiar in or unto them unto whom they are ascribed Wherever any thing is ascribed unto one and not unto another with respect unto any good end there is fundamentum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a foundation for boasting All this saith the Apostle in the matter of our Justification is utterly excluded But wherever respect is had unto any condition or qualification in one more than another especially if it be of works it giveth a ground of boasting as he affirms Chap. 4.2 And it appears from comparing that verse with this that wherever there is any influence of our own works into our Justification there is a ground of boasting but in Evangelical Justification no such boasting in any kind can be admitted Wherefore there is no place for Works in our Justification before God for if there were it is impossible but that a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in one kind or other before God or man must be admitted 2. He infers a general conclusion that a man is justified by Faith without the Works of the Law v. 28. What is meant by the Law and what by the Works of the Law in this discourse of the Apostle about our Justification hath been before declared And if we are justified freely through Faith in the Blood of Christ that Faith which hath the Propitiation of Christ for its especial Object or as it hath so can take no other Grace nor Duty into Partnership with it self therein and being so justified as that all such boasting is excluded as necessarily exults from any differencing Graces or Works in our selves wherein all the
seeking after Justification yet is it not easie for Men to take any other way or to be taken off from this So the Apostle intimates in that expression They submitted not themselves unto the Righteousness of God This Righteousness of God is of that nature that the proud mind of Man is altogether unwilling to bow and submit it self unto yet can it no otherwise be attained but by such a submission or subjection of mind as contains in it a total Renuntiation of any Righteousness of our Men. And those who reproach others for affirming That Men indeavoring after Morality or Moral Righteousness and resting therein are in no good way for the participation of the Grace of God by Jesus Christ do expresly deride the Doctrine of the Apostle that is of the Holy Ghost himself Wherefore the plain design of the Apostle is to declare that not only Faith and the Righteousness of it and a Righteousness of our own by Works are inconsistent that is as unto our Justification before God but also that the intermixture of our own Works in seeking after Righteousness as the means thereof doth wholly divert us from the acceptance of or submission unto the Righteousness of God For the Righteousness which is of Faith is not our own it is the Righteousness of God that which he imputes unto us But the Righteousness of Works is our own that which is wrought in us and by us And as Works have no aptitude nor meetness in themselves to attain or receive a Righteousness which because it is not our own is imputed unto us but are repugnant unto it as that which will cast them down from their legal dignity of being our Righteousness So Faith hath no aptitude nor meetness in it self to be an Inherent Righteousness or so to be esteemed or as such to be imputed unto us seeing its principal faculty and efficacy consists in fixing all the trust confidence and expectation of the Soul for Righteousness and acceptation with God upon another Here was the ruine of those Jews they judged it a better a more probable yea a more righteous and holy way for them constantly to indeavor after a Righteousness of their own by duties of obedience unto the Law of God then to imagine that they could come to acceptance with God by Faith in another For tell them and such as they what you please if they have not a Righteousness of their own that they can set upon its legs and make to stand before God the Law will not have its accomplishment and so will condemn them To demolish this last fort of unbelief the Apostle grants that the Law must have its end and be compleatly fulfilled or there is no appearing for us as righteous before God and withal shews them how this is done and where alone it is to be sought after For Christ saith he is the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believeth Ver. 4. We need not trouble our selves to inquire in what various sense Christ may be said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the end the complement the perfection of the Law The Apostle sufficiently determineth his intention in affirming not absolutely that he is the end of the Law but he is so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Righteousness unto every one that believeth The matter in question Is a Righteousness unto Justification before God And this is acknowledged to be the Righteousness which the Law requires God looks for no Righteousness from us but what is prescribed in the Law The Law is nothing but the Rule of Righteousness Gods prescription of a Righteousness and all the Duties of it unto us That we should be righteous herewith before God was the first original end of the Law It s other ends at present of the conviction of sin and judging or condemning for it were accidental unto its primitive constitution This Righteousness which the Law requires which is all and only that Righteousness which God requires of us the accomplishment of this end of the Law the Jews sought after by their own personal performance of the Works and Duties of it But hereby in the utmost of their endeavors they could never fulfil this Righteousness nor attain this end of the Law which yet if Men do not they must perish for ever Wherefore the Apostle declares That all this is done another way that the Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled and its end as unto a Righteousness before God attained and that is in and by Christ. For what the Law required that he accomplished which is accounted unto every one that believes Herein the Apostle issueth the whole disquisition about a Righteousness wherewith we may be justified before God and in particular how satisfaction is given unto the demands of the Law That which we could not do that which the Law could not effect in us in that it was weak through the flesh that which we could not attain by the Works and Duties of it that Christ hath done for us and so is the end of the Law for Righteousness unto every one that believeth The Law demandeth a Righteousness of us the accomplishment of this Righteousness is the end which it aims at and which is necessary unto our Justification before God This is not to be attained by any works of our own by any Righteousness of our own But the Lord Christ is this for us and unto us which how he is or can be but by the Imputation of his Obedience and Righteousness in the accomplishment of the Law I cannot understand I am sure the Apostle doth not declare The Way whereby we attain unto this End of the Law which we cannot do by our utmost endeavors to establish our own Righteousness is by Faith alone for Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness unto every one that believeth To mix any thing with Faith herein as it is repugnant unto the nature of Faith and Works with respect unto their aptitude and meetness for the attaining of a Righteousness so it is as directly contradictory unto the express design and words of the Apostle as any thing that can be invented Let Men please themselves with their distinctions which I understand not and yet perhaps should be ashamed to say so but that I am perswaded they understand them not themselves by whom they are used or with cavils objections feigned consequences which I value not Here I shall for ever desire to fix my Soul and herein to acquiesce namely That Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that doth believe And I do suppose that all they who understand aright what it is that the Law of God doth require of them how needful it is that it be complied withal and that the end of it be accomplished with the utter insufficiency of their own endeavors unto those ends will at least when the time of disputing is over betake themselves unto the same refuge and rest
in every word And those other redoubled expressions all loss for him that I may win him that I may be found in him that I may know him all argue the working of his affections under the Conduct of Faith and Truth unto an acquiescency in Christ alone as all and in all Somewhat of this frame of mind is necessary unto them that would believe his Doctrine Those who are utter strangers unto the one will never receive the other 2. In his expression of all other other things that are our own that are not Christ whether Priviledges or Duties however good useful excellent they may be in themselves yet in Comparison of Christ and his Righteousness and with respect unto the end of our standing before God and acceptance with him with the same vehemency of Spirit he casts contempt upon calling them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dogs meat to be left for them whom he calleth Dogs that is evil Workers of the Concision or the wicked Jews who adhered pertinaciously unto the Righteousness of the Law v. 2. This account of the earnestness of the Apostle in this Argument and the warmth of his Expressions I thought meet to give as that which gives light into the whole of his design 6. The question being thus stated the enquiry is what any person who desires acceptance with God or a Righteousness whereon he may be justified before him ought to betake himself unto One of the ways proposed he must close with all Either he must comply with the Apostle in his Resolution to reject all his own Righteousness and to betake himself unto the Righteousness of God which is by Faith in Christ Jesus alone or find out for himself or get some to find out for him some exceptions unto the Apostles conclusion or some distinctions that may prepare a reserve for his own works one way or other in his justification before God Here every one must chuse for himself In the mean time we thus argue If our own Righteousness and the Righteousness which is of God by Faith or that which is through the Faith of Christ Jesus namely the Righteousness which God imputeth unto us Rom. 4.6 Or the abundance of Grace and the gift of Righteousness thereby which we receive Rom. 5.17 are opposite and inconsistent in the Work of Justification before God then are we justified by Faith alone through the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ unto us The consequence is plain from the removal of all other ways causes means and conditions of it as inconsistent with it But the antecedent is expresly the Apostles Not my own but that of God Again That whereby and wherewith we are found in Christ is that whereby alone we are justified before God for to be found in Christ expresseth the state of the person that is to be justified before God Whereunto is opposed to be found in our selves And according unto these different states doth the judgment of God pass concerning us And as for those who are found in themselves we know what will be their portion But in Christ we are found by Faith alone All manner of evasions are made use of by some to escape the force of this Testimony It is said in general That 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 it is that alone can intitle us unto the Benefits of Christs Righteousness Nollem Dictum 1. The censure is too severe to be cast on all Protestant Writers without exception who have expounded this place of the Apostle and all others except some few of late influenced by the heat of the Controversie wherein they are ingaged 2. If the Gospel Righteousness intended be his own Personal Righteousness and Obedience there is some want of consideration in affirming That he did not desire to be found in it That wherein we are found thereon are we to be judged to be found in our own Evangelical Righteousness before God is to enter into judgment with God thereon which those who understand any thing aright of God and themselves will not be free unto And to make this to be the meaning of his words I desire not to be found in my own Righteousness which is after the Law but I desire to be found in mine own Righteousness which is according to the Gospel whereas as they are his own inherent Righteousness they are both the same doth not seem a proper interpretation of his words and it shall be immediately disproved 3. That our Personal Gospel Righteousness doth intitle us unto the Benefits of Christs Righteousness that is as unto our Justification before God is gratis dictum not one Testimony of Scripture can be produced that gives the least countenance unto such an assertion That it is contrary unto many express Testimonies and inconsistent with the freedom of the Grace of God in our Justification as proposed in the Scripture hath been proved before Nor do any of the places which assert the necessity of obedience and good Works in Believers that is Justified Persons unto Salvation any way belong unto the Proof of this Assertion or in the least express or intimate any such thing And in particular the Assertion of it is expresly contradictory unto that of the Apostle Tit. 3.4 5. But I forbear and proceed to the consideration of the special answers that are given unto this testimony especially those of Bellarmine whereunto I have as yet seen nothing added with any pretence of Reason in it 1. Some say that by his own Righteousness which the Apostle rejects he intends only his Righteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or by the Works of the Law But this was only an outward external Righteousness consisting in the observation of Rites and Ceremonies without respect unto the inward frame or obedience of the heart But this is an impious imagination The Righteousness which is by the Law is the Righteousness which the Law requires and those works of it which if a Man do he shall live in them for the doers of the Law shall be justified Rom. 2.16 Neither did God ever give any Law of Obedience unto Man but what obliged him to love the Lord his God with all his heart and all his soul. And it is so far from being true That God by the Law required an external Righteousness only that he frequently condemns it as an abomination to him where it is alone 2. Others say that it is the Righteousness whatever it be which he had during his Pharisaism And although he should be allowed in that state to have lived in all good Conscience instantly to have served God day and night and to have had respect as well unto the internal as the external Works of the Law yet all these Works being before Faith before Conversion to God may be and are to be rejected as unto any concurrence unto our Justification But Works wrought in Faith
he had declared v. 10. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good Works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them And the force of his Reason which the causal Conjunction intimates the Introduction of consists in this That all good Works those concerning which he treats Evangelical Works are the Effects of the Grace of God in them that are in Christ Jesus and so are truly justified antecedently in order of nature unto them But that which he principally designed in these words was that which he is still mindful of wherever he treats of this Doctrine namely to obviate an Objection that he foresaw some would make against it and that is this If good Works be thus excluded from our Justification before God then of what use are they we may live as we list utterly neglect them and yet be justified And this very Objection do some men continue to manage with great vehemency against the same Doctrine We meet with nothing in this cause more frequently than that if our Justification before God be not of Works some way or other if they be not antecedaneously required thereunto if they are not a previous condition of it then there is no need of them Men may safely live in an utter neglect of all Obedience unto God And on this Theme men are very apt to enlarge themselves who otherwise give no great evidences of their own Evangelical Obedience To me it is marvellous that they heed not unto what party they make an Accession in the management of this Objection namely unto that of them who were the Adversaries of the Doctrine of Grace taught by the Apostle It must be elsewhere considered For the present I shall say no more but that if the answer here given by the Apostle be not satisfactory unto them if the Grounds and Reasons of the necessity and use of good Works here declared be not judged by them sufficient to establish them in their proper place and order I shall not esteem my self obliged to attempt their further satisfaction Phil. 3.8 9. Yea doubtless and I account all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledg 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 This is the last Testimony which I shall insist upon and although it be of great importance I shall be the more brief in the consideration of it because it hath been lately pleaded and vindicated by another whereunto I do not expect any tolerable reply For what hath since been attempted by one it is of no weight He is in this matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the things that I would observe from and concerning this Testimony may be reduced into the ensuing heads 1. That which the Apostle designs from the beginning of this Chapter and in these Verses in an especial manner to declare what it is on the account whereof we are accepted with God and have thereon cause to rejoyce This he fixeth in general in an interest in and participation of Christ by Faith in opposition unto all Legal Priviledges and advantages wherein the Jews whom he reflected upon did boast and rejoyce Rejoyce in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh Vers. 3. 2. He supposeth that unto that Acceptance before God wherein we are to Rejoyce there is a Righteousness necessary And to whatever it be is the sole ground of that acceptance And to give evidence hereunto 3. He declares that there is a twofold Righteousness that may be pleaded and trusted unto to this purpose 1. Our own Righteousness which is of the Law 2. That which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith These he asserts to be opposite and inconsistent as unto the end of our Justification and acceptance with God Not having mine own Righteousness but that which is c. And an intermediate Righteousness between these he acknowledgeth not 4. Placing the instance in himself he declares emphatically so as there is scarce a greater 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or vehemency of Speech in all his Writings which of those it was that he adhered unto and placed his confidence in And in the handling of this Subject there were some things which engaged his holy mind into an earnestness of expression in the exaltation of one of these namely of the Righteousness which is of God by Faith and the depression of the other or his own Righteousness As 1. This was the turning point whereon he and others had forsaken their Judaism and betaken themselves unto the Gospel This therefore was to be secured as the main instance wherein the greatest controversie that ever was in the world was debated So he expresseth it Gal. 2.15.16 We who are Jews by nature and not Sinners of the Gentiles knowing that a man is not justified by the Works of the Law but by the Faith of Jesus Christ even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the Faith of Christ and not by the Works of the Law 2. Hereon there was great opposition made unto this Doctrine by the Jews in all places and in many of them the minds of multitudes were turned off from the Truth which the most are generally prone unto in this case and perverted from the simplicity of the Gospel This greatly affected his holy Soul and he takes notice of it in most of his Epistles 3. The weight of the Doctrine it self with that unwillingness which is in the minds of men by nature to embrace it as that which lays the axe to the root of all Spiritual Pride elation of Mind and Self-pleasing whatever whence innumerable Subterfuges have been and are sought out to avoid the efficacy of it and to keep the Souls of men from that universal resignation of themselves unto sovereign Grace in Christ which they have naturally such an aversation unto did also affect him 4. He had himself been a great Sinner in the days of his ignorance by a peculiar opposition unto Christ and the Gospel This he was deeply sensible of and therewithal of the excellency of the Grace of God and the Righteousness of Christ whereby he was delivered And men must have some experience of what he felt in himself as unto Sin and Grace before they can well understand his expressions about them 5. Hence it was that in many other places of his Writings but in this especially he treats of these things with a greater earnestness and vehemency of Spirit than ordinary Thus 1. On the part of Christ whom he would exalt he mentioneth not only the knowledg of him but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The excellency of the knowledg of Christ Jesus my Lord with an Emphasis