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A35175 An exposition of the second verse of the fourth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans with an appendix on chap. III ver. 27 : the former being the summ of fifteen sermons, the latter of five, for further explication of that great doctrine of justification / by Walter Cross, M.A. Cross, Walter, M.A. 1694 (1694) Wing C7260; ESTC R31338 133,901 168

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Estates and may forfeit the one sometimes without the other 7. There is a Priority in Justification to Adoption tho' not in Time yet in Order of Nature this follows consequentially from all the rest John 1.12 The right to Sonship follows Justifying Faith Tit. 3.7 being Heirs follows being Justified Rom. 8.17 We are first Children then Heirs and a Spirit of Prayer and Divine Conduct for a Holy Life answers Adoption First Life then Estate in Order of Nature The Arguments brought against it by the Learn'd Forbesius are answerable First To Adopt is the Act of a Father and the Acts of the Father in the Trinity are before the Acts of the Son and Spirit Resp That Order holds more in their Concurrence to one Act than in distinct Acts for Justification is the Act of the whole Trinity so is Adoption 2. That Order holds more in Antelapsarian than Sublapsarian Actions for in the latter Redemption which is Christ's Act is first for there Actions flow not from God immediately as God The Second What is first in Christ is first in us but Christ is a Son first before Justified as a Redeemer Resp This is true in the Order of Intention for we are first design'd Sons to be the Companions and Fellows of that only begotten but 't is not true in Order of Execution 3. We are Christs Brethren by Adoption Resp He is a Brother by Incarnation and fitted for being our Redeemer by it It is not our Brotherhood by Adoption fitted Christ for Redemption but his becoming our Brother by Incarnation The relation of the absolute Blessings Regeneration Sanctification c. may be understood by the following head A Second Help for more distinct Knowledge of this Blessing is what supplies the room or place of the Justificatory Sentence By Virtue of what Act of God upon the Arraign'd Person doth he become formally free from the Curse of the Law By what doth he publickly manifest such a particular Person pardon'd Resp There are four apparent Competitors for this place 1. The Voice of the Gospel declaring all that believe are justified Act. 13.39 but the Voice of the Law and the Voice of the Judge are of distinct Natures The Gospel is in room of the Law it 's the Constitution of Christ's Kingdom and it is also in room of the Records of a Court it shews in general what is Constitutive of Justification Rom. 5.19 By the Obedience of one shall many be made righteous and is Decisive of them that are Justified or to be Justified and them that are not or shall not be Joh. 3.36 He that believeth on the Son hath Life and he that believeth not shall not see Life But the Judg's part is to make an Authoritative Application of this Law or Constitution to an individual Person this the Scripture doth not All that Christ dy'd for are Justifiable by the Gospel Constitution but they often live a considerable time before they be actually Justified 1 Cor. 6.11 Such were some of you but you are sanctified but you are justified Mr. Baxt. Confes p. 40. There is a treble Pardon constitutive by God as a Law-giver declarative by God as a Judge determining our Right and Executive in not inflicting the Poenalty The Gospel doth the first the second is that in question There are others such as the Testimony of the Spirit in a Person 's own Conscience and the solemn Sentence at the Day of Judgment which I referr to the several Courts our Cause is try'd in That which I shall conclude on as bearing nighest resemblance to it is God's Act of Regeneration his first Gift of Saving Faith and Sanctifying Grace that beside its absolute Nature in Conforming the Soul to Christ and raising his Image in it it has a relative signification of Divine Favour that is better than Life God by that Deed or speaking Action says All thy sins are blotted out thy Iniqui●ies forgiven thou art a Freeman in the State 1. 2 Cor. 3.17 Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty Rom. 6.7 He that is dead is freed Orig. justifi'd from sin 2. As soon as ever man sinned Gen. 3. he became guilty and as soon as guilty the Punishment of spiritual Death followed so if as soon as sinn'd condemn'd as soon as Christ's Righteousness applyed he is justifi'd the receiving such a blessed Fruit of it as the Spirit is a sure Application of it there is as present and effectual Vertue in the Medicinal Potion for Life as there was in the Poyson to Death 3. Eph. 1.14 The Spirit of the Lord is an Earnest of the Inheritance wherever he is and since he ensures Adoption much more he ensures Justfication 4. Regeneration makes us Sons and the Priviledge of a Son is more than that of a Subject 5. Rom. 5.10 11. Whenever we are reconciled we are justifi'd for they are but different representations of the same Priviledge and Sanctification takes away the Enmity 6. When the Spirit is given to us we receive a great Trust many Talents and called to a great Office in Christs Kingdom to praise and glorifie him to propagate his Kingdom created unto all good Works Sir Walter Raleigh and with him all Lawyers judg'd his being put in a place of Office and Trust did virtually contain a Pardon in it It implies much weakness in Government or Governours to employ Traytors Rebels and Criminals in places of Trust who must strive for their Lives to hinder the just administration of the Government which would take away their own Life 7. Mat. 9.2 When Christ the Judge of the World verbally pronounces Forgiveness he signifies all imports one thing Arise and walk Eyes be ye open Be thou healed Or Thy sins be forgiven thee His gifts are in a comprehensive Cluster there is a strong Chain of connexion among them and he may name what is most easie hence are they so united and involved into one another by Scripture Titus 3.5.7 1 Cor. 6.11 Rom. 8.30 Act. 5.31 And 8. There is not only the Example of Christs Justifying but the Example of his being justify'd Who was justified in the Spirit 1 Tim. 3.16 All the Works of the Spirit on him and by him were God's justifying him His Resurrection was his declared Justification Rom. 4.25 It was the Pattern of ours besides other great Influences on ours By it was he taken from the Prison of the Grave and acquitted from the Judgment where try'd therefore our spiritual Resurrection Rom. 6.7 is call'd Justification 9. Ancient Custom shews that Authority did intimate their Sentence by symbolical Actions and things as well as words Ovid. Albis atrisque Lapillis The White Stone was sent as a Symbol of Absolution to the Person whose Name they wrote upon it Pierius in his Egyptian Hierogliphicks gives this Account of the Rights of a Slaves Manumission That he was Cloath'd in White Raiment and his Patron 's Ring put upon his Finger and did eat at his Master's Table The Scripture
bear both the Place of a Sentence and a Condition which is needfull to reconcile these two Opinions R. 1. By Condition they mean not a Condition properly in a Law or a foederal Sence as we use the Word in Bargains between Man and Man for the Civilians inform me these three Properties make a Condition 1. Potestative that it be in the Parties Power to perform 2. Casualty in it self and to the other Party uncertain 3. Causal in that it bear a Valuable Consideration The Law will not suffer a Man to injure himself so far or another to deceive him as to get a Title to an Estate of two or three hundred Pounds per Ann. for an hundred Guineas But the Apol. informs us that This Condion is neither in our Power 2. Nor Uncertain 3. Nor Meritorious therefore not a Condition properly Nay further tho' the Gospel be a Law and this Law is the Condition of the Covenant yet it is not a Legal Condition Therefore it must be in a Physical or Logical Sence if not in a Law Sence and a Necessary Connection is enough for the one viz. Logical as if a Man be Reasonable he is capable of Learning and if capable of Learning he is reasonable and Priority enough for the other as that Wood must be laid to the Fire before it can be burnt And this Opinion is very agreeable with Condition in this Sence for there is not only a Necessary Connexion between Faith Repentance and Justification but there is a Priority the Covenant of Grace partakes more of Orderliness it is Order'd in all things than of Conditionalness for the Foundation is before the Relation the Sign before the Signification the Gift of Faith and Repentance is before its Connotation of our Pardon or being receiv'd into Favour Nay further there is not only the Gift of Faith but the exercise of this Grace as mix'd with our Faculties and become a Duty in order of Nature antecedent to this Connotation or Signification of our being now brought under Divine Favour because the way of Communicating this Gift is by Calling speaking immediately to the Soul and representing spiritual Ideas making us behold as in a Glass the glorious Image of the Lord discovering unseen and hoped for things as before and after both is further explained and the Gift cannot be without this exercise by which God and the Soul unite and mutually apprehend one another In short thus That this Gift may not only be long unperceiv'd by the Receiver but that it cannot Signifie untill in Exercise tho' as a Gift it doth signifie There is but one thing more that Justification and Glory are suspended upon these Duties of Faith and Repentance R. Either by Suspension he means no more but Necessary Consequential so we Agree and I do not find his Arguments will prove more For a Testament is fully as proper a Title that gives Name to the whole Bible as Covenant or Bargain and Civilians say the If used in Testaments which is so frequent in Scriptures is a demonstrative If that doth not Suspend but Design the thing Promised and some certain Time or Manner of Conveyance If he understand it a Legal Suspension it 's the same with a Legal Condition which he has deny'd before for Conditio est dispositionis suspensio ex eventu incerto ei opposito and has an Obliging Influence on the Promiser and Conferrs a Title of Right to the Benefit promised I might Conclude this with some Testimonies out of the Fathers but though I find Phrases to answer my Purpose I find the Style sometimes Loose and Oratorical and sometimes they Design another thing which I wish a late Author had minded who Attempts to prove the New Law out of the Fathers when Daille who was better acquainted with them says It 's in vain to make them Judges in many of the Controversies between us and the Papists and yet this Authour would bring them to Prove a more Nice Point become a very late Question In what sense the Law is New thoro the Gospel or the Gospel may be call'd a Law I shall only instance his first Citation out of Justin Martyr p. 228. c. and I am willing to be judged by any of the Subscribers that will take the Pains to read it if Justin intends any thng more than the recommending the Christian Constitution and proving it preferable to the Mosaical For he says This New Law is Posterior to Moses his Law but the Apologist's New Law has been ever since the Fall of Adam He says this New Law is Christ and his Testament Any may see he took Law in no strict Sense when he calls Christ and his Testament a Law he calls it a Testament Eight times in that Page and nigh Seventy times in that Dialogue and seldom I think not above Four times a Law without the Explicatory word Testament added yet I think this Opinion will help to wrest the Fathers out of the Papists Hands The Fathers use the Words Justifie and Sanctifie often promiscuously for making Just and Holy The common Answer by Protestants is the Fathers use the Word according to its Grammatical Signification not Forensical Use To which the Papists answer Then they were not acquainted with that sense This affords another for we may say to Sanctifie is to Justifie in the same Sense that Christ says This Bread is my Body that is a Sign of it And so we may understand the Fathers Est or Is Metonymically for est Signum and we may find enough among their Writings to shew that all the Parts and Degrees of Sanctification are Signs of Justification which doth sufficiently shew that tho' this Phrase is New that the Gift of the Holy Spirit in order to our Sanctification stands in the room and place of a Justificatory Sentence yet the Sense is not for it is the Sign yea the spiritual Initiating Sign of our being in Covenant with God This is the Covenant I will make with them I will pour out my Spirit on them Being in Covenant is a Relative Blessing as well as Justification and they are inseparable Now says the Lord my giving my Spirit imports this I take thee to be one of my People I avouch thee this Day to be mine The Prince's Proclamation of Pardon to a Rebel or the Judges Justificatory Sentence of a Person suspected accused imprison'd is the first Authoritative Signification of the Governments Favour So what is the first Sign of Divine Favour must stand in the place of a Justifying or Pardoning Sentence but these absolute Blessings that are proper to the Elect of Faith and Repentance are the first Intimations of Divine Governments receiving us into Favour therefore the Gift of them is the Absolving Sentence A third Propos'd Head was the Time of our Justification which being meant of the first Act necessarily follows from the former Proposition to be neither later nor sooner than the first Moment of our Conversion