the same Apostle had used Verse 21. Where he calls the word which is able to save the soul an ingrafted word For if the word be able to save the soul but as it is an ingrafted word then it becomes an effectual means of salvation as it is fastened upon and let into the soul by serious consideration on For consideration answers the Metaphor of ingrafting here used If the juice of a Cyon the Branch of a good Tree turn the Sap of a Crab Tree Stock into it's own nature and cause it to bring forth better fruit than before it is by means of being let into it and bound fast upon it that it does so In like manner if the word turn the temper of the soul into its own nature by mingling with it it is by means of consideration which unites the word and the mind and binds it upon the soul For the word does not work after the manner of a Charm or Spell but operates in a way of rational consideration For this is the way of the Spirits working by the word When men with open Face behold as in a Glass the glory of the Lord they are changed into the same image as it were by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 The Holy Spirit works this change indeed but it is by the Gospel and by the Gospel looked into beheld and well considered This considering temper of mind seems to be signified by the good ground in the Parable by which those are resembled who when they have heard the word keep it to wit in their minds and under consideration in opposition to those other hearers of the Gospel who for a total want of consideration immediately lose all they hear as those do who are resembled by the high-way on which some seed fell where it had no covering at all And in opposition to those who for want of much consideration wither when persecution comes like those resembled by the rocky ground on which some of the seed was sown where there was not much earth to give it sufficient rooting and nourishment And also in opposition to those who through an insufficient degree of consideration have the word driven out of their minds or weakened in its operation by the over-powering thoughts cares and pleasures of this present life as those resembled by the thorny ground have and so bring forth no fruit to perfection but only the ear without the full corn in the ear Luke 8. In this thing then which we call Consideration seems to lie the difference between those who hear the Gospel so as effectually to believe it and those other several sorts of hearers who though they hear it yet do not believe it to the saving of their souls For which cause it may well be that the Author to the Hebrews presseth the Christians who were in danger of withering like the Corn which had not much earth through heat of persecution to give the more earnest heed to the things which they had heard lest at any time they should let them slip viz. out of their minds Heb. 2.1 David no doubt well knew of how great concernment it is to have good things kept warm upon the mind by often repeated consideration when he prayed thus unto God Keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the hearts of thy people and prepare their heart unto thee 1 Chro. 29.18 We have seen now in part what men by advantage of the Gospel which is the preventive Grace of God antecedent to all endeavours of ours can do towards their own believing And likewise what that subsequent Grace is by which we are enabled to believe throughly and effectually unto Righteousness and Salvation There is yet one thing more to be taken into consideration before we can so well be resolved as then we may in what capacity men are of performing the condition of the promise of pardon and Life And therefore I shall add that one thing more which is this 4. We have assurance given us of having the subsequent Grace of God conferred upon us to enable us to believe unto Righteousness if we do not grosly neglect to do what we can do towards our believing in using and improving the antecedent Grace of God See this clearly proved by that of our Saviour Mark 4.24 25. Where he speaks to his followers and hearers thus Take heed what you hear with what ineasure ye mete it shall be measured unto you and unto you that hear shall more be given For he that hath to him shall be given and he that hath not from him shall be taken even that which he hath By which our Saviour seems to mean that men shall receive benefit by the Gospel according as they attend to and consider their own great concerns handled in it And that if by thus doing they do not neglect but use and improve this antecedent Grace that then more shall be given to wit more means and more help to believe which is the subsequent Grace I have been speaking of by which men are thorowly enabled to believe unto Righteousness and so unto Pardon and Life These words of our Saviour which according to our translation we read Take heed what you hear are rendred by Dr. Hammond Consider what you hear So that it seems Take heed what you hear does in this place signifie Take heed to what you hear or to give heed to it as those do who consider of it and weigh the import of it as whether they are concerned in it and if yea then how far And the reason which our Saviour adds to inforce this Precept and direction of his shews this to be the sense of it For he says With what measure we mete it shall be measured to us to wit in the blessing and benefit designed us by sending the Gospel to us which is to bring us to believe unto Righteousness that so we may be saved And he adds again that to those that hear viz. that thus hear more shall be given and backs this also with that general rule mentioned five times in three of the Evangelists for he that hath to him shall be given and he that hath not from him shall be taken even that which he hath Now what can the measure be which is meted in hearing the Gospel to which the promise of receiving more is made but an attentive consideration who it is that speaks what he speaks and of what concernment it is And what can that measure be which is meted in hearing which is threatned with a remanding of what had been deposited in their hands but a not minding regarding or considering the weight of what is spoken nor how they are concerned in it If this then be the meaning of our Saviour as I doubt not but it is then we see the promise of Divine assistance is made to such endeavours of ours as we are capable of using through that providence of God by which mans faculties
committed they shall not be mentioned unto him in his Righteousness which he hath done he shall live Ezek. 18.22 And when I say that our conformity to the terms of the Law of Grace is our Righteousness it is to be understood of such a conformity as is hearty and sincere and in the inward man as well as the outward though otherwise it be not indefective in respect of extent and degree For therein lies the difference between the perfect Legal Righteousness and the Evangelical The Legal Righteousness stood in a perfect and indefective conformity to whatever God commanded or the Law of Nature required of man But the Evangelical Righteousness stands in a hearty and sincere desire resolution and endeavour in a man to conform to all that God requires in conjunction with repentance for defects and in affiance in Gods Mercy through Christ for forgiveness Although the best man living does not perhaps keep any one of Gods Commandments in a Legal sense yet the meanest sincere Christian keeps them all in an Evangelical sense that is in sincerity of resolution and endeavour He prepares him self to doe his Masters will as our Saviour speaks Luke 12.47 by resolving and endeavouring to do it as well as he can and by making use of all due means and helps to that end And in this sense good men are in Scripture said to keep Gods Charge his Commandments his Statutes and his Laws Gen. 26.5 2 Sam. 22.22 1 Kings 14.8 2 Kings 18.6 Job 23.11 Psal 119.22 55 56 67 68. Luk. 1.6 Not that they did so in the Legal sense For so there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not Eccles 7.10 But they are said to keep the Commandments in respect of the sincerity of their endeavour doing as well as they can They follow after Righteousness and by this good men are described in Scripture and God is said to love such as do so Pro. 15.9 and 21.21 Isa 51.1 They still labour to do and to grow better and better and this sincerity of endeavour proceeding from a Principle of Faith is it by which men in Scripture are denominated Righteous for more than this I cannot-say is found in any man and less than this I cannot say will denominate any man to be a good tnd Righteous man Our endeavours do not indeed of themselves and without the assistance of Gods Holy Spirit make us of unrighteous to become Righteous But when ever men are persuaded in their own minds to begin with honest endeavours to do their duty as well as they can and to make use of Gods appointed means to help them therein they will be sure of the assistance of Gods Holy Spirit to carry the work through For God will give the Holy Spirit to those that ask him Luke 11.13 and will work in them to will and to do well while they are working out their own Salvation by their endeavours Phil. 2.12 13. To him that hath a heart thus to begin well in using his first Talents which he hath from God to him more shall be given by the Spirit of God and he shall have abundance Mat. 25.29 This kind of Righteousness which we call Evangelical is mentioned in Scripture under several forms of speech yet all signifying the same thing in the main to wit the truth and reality of Grace in the sight of God It is called unfeigned Faith godly Sincerity holiness of Truth a labouring to have always a Conscience void of offence toward God and toward men uprightness of Heart truth in the inward parts integrity perfectness of heart and the like And when we find in Scripture the promises of Pardon and Salvation made to Faith repentance and obedience indefinitely I think we may safely conclude they are made to such in whom these are realy and indeed though but in the lowest degree of sincerity and consequently sequently that such are in the number of Righteous persons But then though the truth and sincerity of Grace in the lowest degree will denominate those that have it Righteous men yet that which is truly such how weak soever it be in the beginning is of a growing nature And the reason hereof is evident because where men do their best endeavours from time to time use and exercise will make them more and more perfect in their way the repetition of acts first begetting and then increasing habits and both together tending to more and more perfection in the Christian course Just as it is with persons in their learning any Art or Trade though the beginning be but small yet the latter end will greatly increase to allude to that in Job The Divine Principle of Grace which is the seed of God in the Soul which brings forth the Harvest of a good Life being in the nature of it contrary to fleshly lusts will be still heaving at them to extirpate and drive them out and aspiring after a perfect state in holiness hungering and thirsting after Righteousness upon which account the way of the Just is as the shining light which shineth more and more unto the perfect day Prov. 4.18 By the way then let it be observed how easie the Yoke of Christ our Saviour is and how light his Burden when he hath made the condition of obtaining the pardon of sin and Eternal Life no harder than to repent that we have been in Rebellion against our Maker to our own undoing and seriously to resolve and sincerely to endeavour to desist from all acts of disobedience for the future and to do the best we can to please him in observing those reasonable Laws of his Kingdom and Government that are ordained for our own good for the peace and satisfaction of our own minds for the preservation of the health of our bodies and for the innocent injoyments of other the comforts of this life for the peace likewise order and concord of publick Communities of men both in Church and State while every one is thereby ordered to keep his own rank and to act in his own Sphere and to prepare us by observing them for the enjoyment of a blessed immortality after all this And likewise observe how unreasonable and void of all judgment and discretion it is for men to deprive themselves of all these advantages and wilfully and desperately to run upon their own ruin when all might so easily be prevented as by subjecting to the easie Yoke and gentle Government of Christ who reckons our hearty and sincere endeavours in obeying him for obedience 3. How this Righteousness comes to be such to be accounted and accepted for Righteousness and it is so upon a double account at least 1. It is of the Grace of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ that it is so it is by way of donation or free gift without consideration had of any thing in us that should render us worthy of such a favour but the contrary It doth not make the benefit the less of
Righteous without all mixture of that which deserves not the name of holiness and goodness nor they without unrighteousness antecedent to this and before they had repented and therefore is not such a compleat Righteousness as would hold measure according to the standard of the Law of innocency if we were to be tried by that to be Justified or Condemned by that In this regard the best of us have cause with the Psalmist to cry out and say If thou Lord shouldst work iniquity O Lord who shall stand Psal 130.3 It is indeed a growing Righteousness that is by degrees growing up towards a perfect state such in whom it is are perfecting holiness in the fear of God But before it is grown to this perfect state it is in the account of grace and by way of favour and for Christs sake accepted and approved by God for such Righteousness as unto which he hath promised the pardon of all past offences and of all such after infirmities as are consistent with this Covenant-Righteousness in its lower degree and also eternal Life it self So that in a word this thing we call everlasting Righteousness by which we are Justified owes it self its very being such a Righteousness as it is unto the Covenant of Grace or that Grace of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ which is put into a Covenant for us 3. The Covenant operates to our Justification as being the rule by which those are justified in judgment to be Righteous persons such as to whom the promise of pardon and eternal life is made that are justified at all Righteousness as I have formerly shewed receives its denomination as it doth its nature from its conformity to some Law And this Covenant-Righteousness the Righteousness of Faith receives its denomination from its Conformity to the Covenant of Grace as being that qualification in the person on condition of which the promises of the Covenant are made and therefore every man that is Justified is Justified by this Law to be such a person as to whom the promises are made It is by this Law that such a person is Justified in his cause if a man be not a Just and Righteous person in the sense of this Law he will not be Justified by God for he judgeth of men and their cause by this Law Jam. 2.12 So speak ye and so do as they that shall be judged by the Law of liberty that is the Gospel or Covenant of Grace And our Saviour saith The word that I have spoken the same shall judg you in the last day John 12.48 4. The Covenant operates to our Justification as an instrument of making us to become Righteous and so capable subjects of Justification And this it doth by way of motive or persuasion The great and precious promises made to men in this Covenant of pardon of sin and eternal Life on condition of the Righteousness of Faith Sobriety Righteousness and Godliness and not otherwise they out of a desire and love to the benefits promised are persuaded to imbrace the condition without which they cannot enjoy them that is to become Righteous The Gospel ministration is called the ministration of Righteousness 2 Cor. 3.9 And it is so both as it ministers to us the knowledg that there is another Righteousness than that which is of the Law and also as it ministers to us powerful motives and assistances to follow after Righteousness by which they become Righteous and so to be Justified St. Paul saith The Gospel is the power of God to Salvation in as much as therein the Righteousness of God is revealed from Faith to Faith Rom. 1.16 17. the terms on which God will account them Righteous and the motives to make them so these are revealed by the Gospel by which it becomes the power of God to Salvation to those that believe it The Gospel is a ministration of Righteousness and of Justification as it is the ministration of Reconciliation of reconciling us to God of reconciling our nature to the holy nature of God and to his holy Laws by making us partakers of a Divine Nature a God-like Nature in Holiness and Goodness which is done by the great and precious promises of the Gospel of pardon and eternal Life as powerful motives persuading men to become new creatures in order to the obtaining these great benefits promised and attainable only upon condition of such our reconciliation to God which puts us into a perfect capacity of Justification that is of being approved of as those who have performed the condition of the foresaid promised benefits Thus the Gospel is called the word of reconciliation which was committed to the Apostles and others and their Ministry the ministry of reconciliation 2 Cor. 5.18.19 And by a practical knowledg and belief of these things revealed by the Gospel men come to be justified that is approved of as those that have known believed and obeyed the Gospel By his knowledg saith God concerning Christ shall my righteous servant justifie many Isa 53.11 That is by the knowledg of him in what he is hath done and suffered revealed and taught What the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh as to free us from the Law of sin and to bring us to that Righteousness which it did design but could not effect that is now done by the Law of the spirit of Life which is in Christ Jesus to wit the Gospel The Law without the Gospel could not give us that assurance of Gods willingness to be reconciled to us and of pardon upon repentance which the Gospel does much less of a glorious reward of new obedience For the promise of pardon for Christs sake upon our repentance the promise of the Resurrection of the Body and of the Celestial Glory are brought to light by the Gospel being matters of supernatural Revelation Now it is the great assurance which the Gospel gives us of these things upon the account of Christs death that is the powerful motive of prevailing with men to be reconciled to God and to become Evangelically Righteous that they may be Justified And therefore the preaching of the Cross is said to be to them that are saved the power of God and for wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1.18 24. That is it contains and lays open Gods most wise contrivance of reconciling sinners to himself and by that means becomes his powerful motive of drawing men to it that so they may be Justified Pardoned and Glorified The Law made nothing perfect it is the bringing in of this better hope by the Gospel that doth it Heb. 7.19 The Law which laid a burden of strict obedience upon men backt with severe threatnings in case of transgression prevailed little upon men but to keep them under a spirit of bondage to fear while they were unacquainted with the rich grace and indulgence of the Gospel by which the Yoke of Christ is rendered easie and his burden light The Gospel prevails much
in his word To say God did give such men power in Adam will not salve the business For we cannot say that any such power was given to Adam himself before his fall much less that all his Posterity had such a power in him We cannot say that Adam had power to do more than what was necessary to continue him in that state in which God created him and consequently we cannot say that God gave him power to repent when he had no occasion for it or power to believe the Gospel when there was no Revelation of it nor occasion for such a Revelation No this power depends upon an after-work of Grace through our Blessed Redeemer Nor is this doctrine touching the power which God hath given unto men of acting towards their own believing at all contrary to that where men are said to have believed through grace Acts 18.27 or to that where Faith is said to be the gift of God For it is through the preventive and antecedent Grace of God as I have said that they are enabled to act towards their believing For though what they do towards their own believing is by a free use of their natural faculties yet it is by means of the preventive and antecedent Grace of God to wit the Gospel that those faculties act any thing towards their believing the Gospel For without such an object of Faith as the Gospel is mens faculties could act nothing towards the believing of it And then further though men do exercise their natural faculties upon the objective Grace of God and thereby act somthing towards their own believing Yet in that hereupon more power is given them to believe hâ—â—â—lie effectually and fully to Righteousness and Salvation this power is from the subsequent Grace of God So that the whole business of believing from the beginning to the end of it is of Grace first of Grace antecedent and then of Grace subsequent There is only so much of man in raising Faith in him as belongs to the free use of his natural powers and faculties The Grace of God in working Faith does not put new faculties into man nor destroy that freedom which is proper to the will as such It only rectifies and regulates the motions and operations of the will in reference to its objects So that the change is not natural but moral And this moral change in rectifying and regulating the acts and motions of the will is made partly by opening the understanding and enlightening the mind better to discern the nature of things and whereto they tend And this is done partly by holding the thoughts more frequenâ—â—y and more intently upon things that concern the soul and another life and partly by assisting and strengthening the understanding in making a right judgment of things And then the will is prevailed upon to chuse the right end and the way to it by having the great motives of the Gospel kept upon it by a more frequent and constant consideration For by that more frequent consideration and by the illumination of the mind about the great motives of the Gospel the power and force of those motives is better felt by the Will So that as a man comes to have other apprehensions of things by illumination of the mind so he comes to have other affections for them in the acts and motions of his will This change thus made in the mnid and will is called the renewing of the Holy Ghost because it is his work upon and by both Tit. 3.5 and a being renewed in the spirit of the mind Eph. 4.23 It is a restoring the natural faculties that were depraved in their operations to their right use and exercise for which they were made which was to act for the honor of their maker and for their own happiness and not contrarywise as they do when perverted by the power of sin This renovation in the natural faculties therefore tends to the perfecting of our nature For which cause perhaps men thus renewed are in Scripture stiled perfect in the favourable sense of Grace This one thing is further to be noted That whatever is done upon the natural faculties of mind and will by the Gospel or by the Spirit of God to change and renew them is also done by those faculties Men are not made to understand or believe the Gospel which they did not before otherwise than by exercising their mind and will about it By all this then it appears I hope that what is ascribed unto man in acting towards his own believing is no ways contrary to Grace unless you will say an effect cannot be of Grace if the natural faculties have any thing to do in the producing of it as they must if it be mans act I might shew how that the Gospel by the giving of which God hath been aforehand with us and prevented all endeavours of ours is of it self and in the very nature of it so apt to work upon the human faculties and to incline men to embrace it if they would but a little attend to it and consider it which one would think they might easily do if they would before their natures are debauched by a custom of sinning I say it is so apt to gain upon them that it hardly fails to do so more or less but where it meets with such as wilfully call off their natural faculties from attending to it and the things it treats of and that imploy them about objects of another nature as those did who in the Parable of our Saviour are said to be invited to the Supper which a King made for his Son when they made their several excuses This is well represented by our Saviour when he says of such that they closed their eyes lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and should understand with their hearts and should be converted and I should heal them Mat. 13.15 These are words which seem to signifie more than a bare omission or neglect and denote a kind of opposition a striving with themselves not to think upon or to be affected with things of that nature as those of a spiritual concern are And such people do not only not incline their ears to hear nor give ear to hear as the Scripture speaks but they turn away their ear from hearing they reject the word of the Lord and the counsel of God against themselves We do not therefore attribute any such great matter unto men when we say that they by the advantage of the Gospel may do so much towards their own believing if they will as would through the help of Gods Holy Spirit who is always ready to assist mens honest and good endeavours issue and end in an effectual believing Nay there is so much of the Grace of God vouchsafed towards the calling of men by the very sending of the Gospel to them as will in all probability prevail upon them if they do not much oppose resist and
the words are these And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses To be Justified from sin sometimes signifies to be freed from the power and dominion of it Thus in Rom. 6.7 St. Paul having said in Verse 6. Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin adds in Verse 7. for he that is dead is Justified from sin For so it is according to the marginal reading and so the Dutch Translation Englished reads it though in our Translation it is rendred freed instead of Justified from sin And in this sense St. Austin understood this Acts 13.39 as I find him quoted And to this sence of the word Justifie agrees the reading of Revel 22.11 which some upon occasion use Let him that is filthy be filthy still and he that is Righteous let him be Justified still To the same sence of the word Justifie some alledg Rom. 8.30 Tit. 3.5 compared with Verse 7. and 1 Cor. 6.11 But ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are Justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God Where Justification seems to be ascribed unto the Spirit of God in one respect as to the Lord Jesus in another And doubtless Justification is the effect of the operation of all the Blessed Trinity though the manner of their operation be different Now that to be Justified from all things from which ye could not be Justified by the Law of Moses may be understood in this sense there are two things to be said to render it probable The one is the good agreement which this sence has with other places of Scripture which shew that men are freed from sin through Christ by his Gospel so as they could not be freed from it by the Law of Moses Thus Heb. 7.18 19. There is verily a disannulling of the Commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof For the Law made nothing perfect but the bringing in of a better hope did And again Rom. 8.2 3 4. For the Law of the Spirit of Life which is in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of sin and of death 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 who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit So likewise Rom. 6.14 Sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the Law but under grace By all which we see that the Law of Moses could not Justifie men from sin as Christ by the Gospel-dispensation does if by being Justified from sin we understand a being freed from sin it self as to its dominion The other thing which may incline us to understand the words under consideration in this sense is what may be observed from the context St. Paul had said in Verse 38. the words immediately before Be it known to you men and brethren that through this man Christ is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins Now then if in Verse 39. he should mean no more by being Justified than a being Pardoned he would seem but to say over the same thing again in other words which he had said before which is not usual with him But if this should not be the meaning of those words and should we suppose that by being Justified from all things from which they could not be Justified by the Law of Moses should be meant a being Justified from the guilt of sin as that signifies a being freed from the punishment deserved by it yet let us consider whether it will necessarily follow that the Apostle in those words defines Justification by Remission of sin or whether rather he does not thereby only set forth the subsequent benefits that would accrue to them by being Justified by believing which could not be obtained by their observing the Law of Moses And if so then the meaning would be only this That by their being Justified by their believing they should be delivered from or secured against the evil effects of their sin from which they could be not secured by observing the Law of Moses Now that to be Justified by believing by vertue of the blood of Christ and to be freed from the punishment of sin which is Pardon are two different things seems to be very plain from those words of St. Paul Rom. 5.9 where he saith much more than being now justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him He infers the certainty of their being Pardoned or saved from wrath from their being Justified and the inference and that from which it is made are doubtless two things We see then that men may be Pardoned by vertue of their being Justified and so be Justified from sin and yet not Justified by their being Pardoned It will no more follow that because by Justification we are Pardoned that therefore Pardon is our Justification than it will follow that because by believing we are Pardoned that therefore our Pardon is our believing and our believing our Pardon And now if we should understand the words Justified from all things from which ye could not be Justified by the Law of Moses in both the forementioned sences for a being delivered both from the guilt of sin and from the power and pollution of it I know no inconvenience in it both being true But if we do so yet we do not thereby necessarily conclude Pardon of sin to be Justification but only that Pardon of sin is by Justification as depending upon it For Gods adjudging of us to have performed the condition in believing on which he promised Pardon which is his Justifying of us together with his imputing that Faith to us for Righteousness intervenes comes between our believing and our being actually Pardoned and is that which gives the immediate right to it as I shewed before What hath been said then may suffice I suppose to shew that in all probability no such thing can be concluded from those words in Acts 13. as that we are Justified by being Pardoned The next Scripture I shall enquire into is Rom. 5.16 the words these Not as it was by one that sinned so is the gift for the judgment was by one or by one offence to condemnation but the free gift is of many offences unto Justification That which is first necessary to be done here is to consider the Translation because these words the free gift of many offences unto Justification seem as we have them in our Translation a little uncouth and somwhat unintelligible I have seen the matter in this part of the Verse Translated from the Original thus But the free gift is unto Justification from many offences not of many offences
prove Justification by Faith to be of Grace and not of debt as I have shewed from Rom. 4. but never throughout the whole Scripture stiled Righteousness that ever I could find And if any think it is implyed in such Scriptures where the reward of Righteousness is stiled Righteousness by a Figure yet if it should be so it would no more prove Remission of sin to be Justification than it will prove Glorification to be Justification which yet in St. Pauls account is quite different from it For he says Whom he justified them he also glorified Rom. 8.30 And now for these reasons I hope it will not be thought unnecessary nor unprofitable to have endeavoured to shew that there is a difference between Justification and Remission of sin however what hath been done herein is submitted to the consideration and judgment of the judicious Reader But there is another opinion which I but now mentioned of worse consequence as I apprehend it of which I have said but little And that is the opinion of those who place our Justification in the imputation of the Righteousness of Christ to us not only in its effects as we all hold but in it self as if it were so transferred to us that we were Righteous with the very same personal and numerical Righteousness wherewith he himself is Righteous and that it is so reckoned ours as if we had wrought it in our own persons yea that indeed we have wrought it in and by him The nakedness of which opinion hath been plentifully exposed by others and I shall not concern my self with it now further than what I have already done in these papers Wherein I have shewed that the Righteousness of Christ operates to our Justification in quite another way And likewise that it is the Christian Faith as operative and practical that is imputed to us for Righteousness and that by virtue of Christs Righteousness and Gods act of Grace upon the account of it But then this which yet is the plain doctrine of the Holy Scripture is quite another thing than the transferring of Christs Righteousness it self to us Indeed this opinion excludes and shoulders out the Christian Evangelical Righteousness from the office and use to which God hath designed it and is attended with several dangerous consequences and absurdities otherwise as hath been set forth at large in several Books which treat of this subject which I shall forbear to repeat For my design in these papers was not to treat of Justification in a way of controversie nor so much to detect what is to be avoided as what is to be imbraced and held fast in this matter For I reckon that if that which is the truth be received into the mind upon satisfactory grounds that which is its contrary will fall off of it self The Conclusion WE have now seen how much hath been done by the Eternal Father and his Holy Son our Blessed Saviour that we might be Justified Pardoned and Glorified all things on their part are prepared and made ready The Father hath made and the Son hath fulfilled the Law of Mediation to bring about a Reconciliation between an offended God and us Rebel-Creatures Christ hath now no more sorrows nor pains nor deaths to undergo and suffer for us There are no terms of Grace and Mercy of Pardon and Peace of deliverance from Hell and of obtaining the Glory of Heaven which are not already obtained for us and by the Gospel plainly made known and freely offered to us For it is as I have shew'd of Grace in God and obtained by the Mediatorial Righteousness of Christ that Faith or the Righteousness by Faith is made the condition of Pardon of sin and eternal Life as well as the conferring of Pardon and Life is on that condition Since then such terms of happiness are obtained for us it remains on our part that we receive not this Grace of God in vain but that we be as careful to observe those terms as we are desirous to enjoy the benefits annexed to them because we cannot enjoy the one without observing the other We cannot enjoy the benefits of the new Covenant but by becoming new creatures and by living new lives For this is the new Righteousness by Faith on condition of which the great promises of the new Covenant are made Whoever will come to the Wedding Supper of the Lamb must come in his Wedding garment or else he will be excluded And the Wedding garment in which the Bride the Lambs Wife is said to be arayed is said to be the Righteousness of Saints Revel 19.8 And now Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us we must keep the Feast on this Sacrifice not with the old leaven of malice and wickedness but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth which is the Evangelical Righteousness I have been speaking so much of 1 Cor. 5.7 8. Old things are past away now and behold all things are become new Our old Righteousness in which man was first made is lost and a new Righteousness instituted In the room of the old terms of happiness perfect innocency now the new ones of Faith and godly Sincerity are introduced This new and living way into Heaven is now consecrated for us through the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ Nothing but a new man a new heart a new spirit and newness of life will correspond or suit with the new Covenant nor with the new Jerusalem which is above These are all of one piece there is no parting of them nor having an interest in the one without having the other And now considering that all this happiness of Pardon of sin and the Glory to come and the terms of obtaining both is brought about only by the Grace of our God and the Mediatorial Righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ what can we do less than to joyn with those Redeemed of the Lord mentioned in Rev. 5. who are said to have sung a new song to the everlasting honor of our Redeemer saying Thou art worthy to take the Book and to open the Seals thereof for thou wast slain and hast Redeemed us to God by thy bloud out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation and hast made us unto our God kings and priests How much more cause have we to sound forth the praises of the Redeemer of the World than those Myriads of Holy Angels which have no such need of a Saviour as we have Who yet out of a grateful sense of it celebrate the memory of his most wonderful and worthy undertaking and performance for the Redemption of us poor miserable and lost men Saying with a loud voice worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing And well may we with those blessed spirits sing aloud of the riches wisdom and strength of the Lamb that was slain as most worthy to receive these because he useth them to so