then wrote And St. John tells us positively That he that Doth righteousness is only truely righteous And not he that reckons himself so without righteous Doing upon the score of believing And St. James expresly sets himself to confute this dangerous Errour and to prove these two things First That Christianity Believed and Professed will profit no man unless the Ends of it be pursued and prosecuted And secondly That that Faith that the Scripture calls a Justifying faith is an operative working faith a Faith that includes in its nature a suitable acting and obedience Speaking of Abrahams faith and his Justification which the Scripture makes to be the pattern of Gospel-faith and Justification and the one to run parallel with the other And which St. Paul had made so much use of to prove Justification by faith against the Jews Seest thou sayes he how faith wrought with his works and by works was faith made perfect and the Scripture was fulfilled which saith Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him for Righteousness Where 't is as plainly expressed as by words it can be That that faith that was accounted to Abraham for righteousness was such a faith as contained in the bowels of it a suitable obedience and subjection to all Gods revealed will and pleasure By works saith the Apostle faith was made perfect That is faith was in order to action and a suitable acting and obedience in pursuance of it was included in it and was that which when performed did compleat and perfect it and without which faith is altogether imperfect and is not such a faith as in the Scripture is said to be accounted for righteousness And therefore it was upon Abrahams suitable obedience in prosecution of his faith by which the Scripture was fulfilled when it sayes Araham believed God and that belief was accounted for righteousness By which it is plain that Abrahams faith was counted for righteousness with reference to that obedience that was virtually compriz'd in it and not otherwise And that his faith and his works wrought joyntly together to obtain the same end And this is no way contradicted by St. Paul who tells us that Abraham was not justified by works For the works that St. Paul means are plainly such as the Law required such perfect sinless works as would in strict rules of Justice make the reward to be Debt And therefore when he opposeth faith to works 't is but in other words to oppose the Gospel to the Law St. Pauls business is to prove Justification in the way of the Gospel against the Jews by faith in opposition to Justification by the works of the Law St. James his province is to prove that the faith that does justifie us under the Gospel is not a bare naked Assent but such a faith as Abrahams was that contains in it a suitable obedience The one Apostle asserts in opposition to the Jews Evangelical Justification against Legal under the general term faith The other Apostle for the confutation of Heretical Christians explains that term and tells us it imports not only believing of God but an obedient Acting in prosecution thereof That the Apostles do very well agree with each in their Doctrine that Abraham was justified by such a faith as was accompanied with works and not by faith only according to St. James And yet that Abraham was justified by faith and not by works according to St. Paul may be this made to appear First That Abrahams faith that was counted for righteousness included his suitable obedience according to St. James and that his works did compleat and perfect his faith And that the Scripture was thereby fulfilled that tells us the Act of his Believing was counted for righteousness is plain from the story it self in Genesis which St. James quotes Had not his Believing compriz d a suitable obedience instead of being counted for Righteousness it would no doubt have been esteemed of God as it had indeed been a great piece of hypocrisy For Abrahams upright walking was the terms upon which God at first proposed to enter into a Covenant with him Secondly That Abraham was not justified by works according to St. Paul though his faith that was counted for Righteousness included his obedience is thus evident St. Pauls business is to prove against the Jews that Abraham who came first under the Law of Circumcision and from whom they derived themselves for it appears by their discourses with our Saviour when they cryed out We have Abraham to our Father that they went no higher was justified before he came under the Law of Circumcision before he was obliged to the oeconomie of the Law upon Gospel-principles and so those had the precedence of legal even in Abraham their Father upon the terms of another Covenant the Condition of which was Faith upon such terms as both Jews and Gentiles were to be justified then under the Gospel Upon which account the Scripture stiles him the common Father of all the faithful Abrahant before that faith of his that was accounted to him for Righteousness had lived for some time in Heathen Idolatry and was a great sinner and so could not pretend to be justified by a sinless perfection which the Law required and the Jews insisted on and so not by works in that sense He was one of the ungodly St. Paul speaks of in 4th to the Rom. who had not Legal perfection had not such works to plead as would make the reward in strict rules Justice to be of debt His Justification was upon the very same terms that the Gentiles then might be justified upon though they had lived in the grossest Idolatry and that was by believing the revelation of God in Christ charging their course of life and becoming obedient to what God should require of them In short Abrahams faith and obedience was not such Righteousness as in its own nature and by its own intrinsick worth would justifle any man from the guilt of all his sin and denominate him perfectly a Righteous person for had it so been in it self it needed not any favour to have been accounted for Righteousness But God was pleased out of grace so to reckon and account it Abraham having blelieved God about the promises of the Messiah that was to spring out of his family by whom himself and all the world were to be saved for the sum of all Gods converse with Abraham was to shew him Christs day and reveal to him the Salvation that was to come by him God was pleased to give the world an instance in his imputing that faith of Abraham to him for Righteousness how and upon what terms men should be saved by the Messiah when he did come in a word what should be the condition he would require of us to perform by the Gospel that is By believing the revelation of Christ and acting suitably thereunto by a sincere though imperfect obedience This God would impute and account for Righteousness This
of Evangelical obedience the greatest work the Gospel requires at our hands and that which produceth all other and 't is plainly made as such every where in Scripture the Condition of the New Law and that which it requires on our part to be performed in order to our Justification and Salvation And so the Apostle declares when he sayes We have believed that we might be justified That is We have performed the Condition required by the Gospel in order to Justification that so we might be justified thereby upon the terms thereof And for that reason as 't is the Condition of the New Law 't is accounted for Righteousness And so when God justified Abraham upon the terms of the New Covenant his Faith is said to be accounted for Righteousness because it was the performance of the Condition thereof And God was pleased to give an Instance in him what was to be the Condition of it which was a sincere Faith including a suitable obedience So far different was Abrahams Faith in its Nature and so far is all true Gospel-Faith from that Idea some men frame of it who ascribe no more to it then a Bare naked notional instrumentality Nor is there one Text in all the New Testament that excludes Gospel Works Evangelical obedience from being Conditionally necessary to our Justification and Salvation but they are universally made so as has been proved before For Whatever is requisite to constitute a man a good Christian is conditionally necessary to his Justification and no man can be interested in the Salvation purchased by Christ that does not subject himself to an universal obedience to all his Laws To distinguish as some do between Justification and Salvation and say that Gospel-works are necessary to the Latter but not to the Former is to distinguish where the Scripture makes no difference For The Apostles speak of a Justified person and a saved person as the same and of Justification and Salvation as so and they are both promiscuously promised to Believing St. James when he is discoursing of Justification asks this question can faith without works save you Where he means the same thing as if he had said can it justifie you Nor does it any more derogate from free Grace to make Gospel-works necessary to Justification then it does to ake them necessary to Salvation For they are both inseparably included each in other No man can be saved that is not Justified for whosoever is not justified at Gods Bar is condemned and whoever is justified is also glorified That Text of St. Paul Rom. 4. v. 5. duly considered does no way counenance any such Doctrine for the right understanding of which it wil be necessary to consider the whole Context In the first ver What shall we say then sayes the Apostle that Abraham our father from whom we derive our selves and who first received the Law of Circumcision the father of our Persons and of our Religion as pertaining to the flesh hath found 'T is an Interrogation importing a Negation Abraham did find nothing as pertaining to the flesh By flesh in Scripture besides the Corrupt acceptation it sometimes is meant the strength of natural abilities So Ismael is said to be born after the flesh that is by the meer and sole efficacy of nature in opposition to Isaacs being born 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the spirit and after the promise And sometimes by Flesh is meant the Legal external priviledges of the Jews So in the 3d. of the Philip. 't is taken St. Paul sayes there If any other man thinketh he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh I more Circumcised the eighty day c. But 't is plain what St. Paul means here by flesh For what he calls flesh in the first ver he calls works in the second For if Abraham were justified by works he hath whereof to glory but not before God If Abraham were justified by the worth and value of his own performances of any works wrought in his own Strength and by his own Ability he had whereof to Glory But not before God which last clause is a positive Negation and comes in as a Minor proposition And so the the Apostles Argument is thus framed If Abraham were justified by works he had whereof to glory before God For 't is faith only that excludes glorying before God his reward would have been a debt But he had not whereof to glory before God Therefore he was not justified by works And that this is his meaning in those words But not before God is plain Because in the next words he applies himself in the proof of it For what saith the Scripture sayes he It does not say that Abraham was justified before God by works but Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for Righteousness God out of favour and grace accepted his Faith for Righteousness which is implyed in the word Counted when he might justly have Refused so to do Abraham could not have claim'd it from any merit in strict rules of Justice Now to him that worketh in the 4th ver is the reward not reckoned of Grace but of Debt That is he that hath any thing due to his for what he has himself in his own strength done that Reward is a Debt and is not a reward of Grance And so if Abraham had been a man of such merits had done such works as would in their own nature have justified him and constituted him Righteous in the sight of God Gods justifying him and adjudging him righteous had been a debt due to him But Abraham was not so he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sinner and could claim nothing of Debt And God was pleased out of favour and grace to Reward Abrahams Faith and suitable obedience with an accounting it for Righteousness and to justifie him thereupon But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifyeth the ungodly his faith is accounted for Righteousness That is Dependeth not upon the strength of his own performances and such a sinless innocency as will in strict rules of Justice acquit him before God as Abraham did not but Believeth on God that justifies the ungodly That is a man that has not a Legal sinless perfection for that is meant by the ungodly his Faith is counted for Righteousness That is his Faith through Grace shall avail him as much to all intents and stand him in as much stead as a perfect sinless Righteousness would do Abrahm's Justification was not upon the terms of the Law or by perfection of Works which is inconsistent with Pardon for he was a great sinner and had lived for some time in Heathen Idolatry But he was justified upon the terms and conditions of another Covenant that is upon his believing God and reforming his Life was Pardoned and Accepted and his Faith and sincere reformation though the Grace of another Covenant was accounted to him for Righteousness Even so as the Idolatrous Gentiles though
One being a voluntary act of Grace the other a necessary effect of Justice will not at all reach this case supposing it to be true For a sinners Justification results not from free and absolute Pardon nor consists in it but a sinner is pardoned and justified in a way judicial in pursuance of a Law by pleading an ample satisfaction made The greatest exercise of favour in such a case seems to lye in the acceptance of the satisfaction Now God who is the Party offended and the Judge declaring himself to be abundantly satisfied concerning the sins of the world by what Christ has suffered and done and it being perhaps highly requisite the Nature of Christs satisfaction considered in point of Justice too that he should so be the Pardon and Justification of a sinner are eminent effects of his Justice as well as of his Grace and Mercy And it becomes a Righteous thing now with God to pardon and justifie an offender so qualified in Judgement For it must be consider'd that although the Ground and Foundation of our Salvation and the whole of it in its contriving and effecting is nothing else but free and absolute grace and Divine goodness yet in such a Method and after such a Manner is Grace dispenced that in every Step that is taken toward the Salvation of a sinner God appears Righteous as well as Gracious and Justice and Mercy do kiss each other But still the Justification of such a one must exist in his Pardon by which he obtaines a Legal Discharge from all obligation to Punishment stands rectus in Curia no charge from the Law can be brought against him and he is upon even terms in the eye of the Law with those who never offended Nor can it be otherwise For no satisfaction be it never so Great can put an Offender out of need of forgiveness nor can it operate farther then to obtain forgiveness and so free him from condemnation and constitute him judicially righteous 'T is true that this is not such a Justification as an innocent person obtains in Judgment But 't is such a one as an offender is only capable of and has all in the effects and advantages that the other has and may be as truly and properly termed Justification And whoever denyes it makes the Justification of an offender utterly Impracticable and Impossible SECT II. ANd thus I have gone through the first Promise I obliged my self to which was to give an account of what is meant in Scripture by Justification We are not Justified as righteous and innocent persons by having Christs righteousness personally imputed to us as our own and we accounted in Judgment to have done what He did and acquitted as sinless thereupon Such apprehensions are vain and have no bottom in Scripture But we are Justified as in indeed and in truth we are as Sinners that is By pleading ample Satisfaction made for our sins in Christ and our own performance of that Gospel-condition which God has made necessary to our participation of the Benefits of it Upon which Plea God is graciously pleased judicially to pardon our sins to account of us as Righteous thereupon and to deal with us accordingly that is Legally to intitle us to all the grace and glory promised in the Gospel Divers Objections are raised against these Conceptions of Justification the value whereof seems to me to result rather from the Authors of them sundry Learned and Worthy men then from any weight in themselves The most Material are these three First It is Objected That when the Scripture describes Justification by Forgiveness of sin it speaks Synecdochically and expresseth the Whole by a Part. So in the 4th to the Rom. and other Texts And that Text Rom. 4. v. 25. is much insisted on to prove that Justification implyes more then Forgivenness of sin This Objection it will be acknowledged can be of no force unless it be proved that the Scripture does in other places ascribe some other distinct parts to Justification There can he but one more with any colour pretended and that is Adjudging Righteous upon the score of some righteousness Now it has been before proved That Pardoning of sin upon Christs satisfaction contains in it imputing righteousness without works and that in the Apostles sense they are all one When we are told in some Texts that we are justified by Christ in others That we obtain forgiveness of sin by Christ and in others That we are made righteous by Christ By an impartial comparing the Scripture with it selt it appears that one and the same thing is intended For whoever upon the performance of the Gospel-condition is legally Interested in Christs satisfaction and thereupon actually Pardoned is also thereby Justified and adjudged to be Righteous by the order and appointment of God in that case and in this the Scripture is every where very positive and plain That when the Scripture describes Justification by Forgiveness of sin it describes it Synecdochically expressing the whole by a part there is no good reason at all to believe but quite the contrary That it describes it comprehensively For it appears by Scripture-evidence that the whole form of Justification is compriz'd therein and the Scripture describes it most generally by pardon of sin and most fully in those places where it treats most largely and expressly of it In the forementioned 4th chap. to the Rom. 't will appear very plain to any impartial Reader That the Apostle there without any Synecdoche describes Justification in its full latitude if we consider these things First that he there fully and compleatly sets out the Justification of Abraham who in the manner of his Justification was to be the great pattern of Justification to all succeeding ages and the whole business of Gospel-Justification was compriz'd in the way and manner of his Justification Secondly he there states and determines the Grand and Deepest point about Justification whether it be by faith or works Now if he had not described it in its full extent and latitude and taken in the whole of Justification in that Quotation out of David by which he proves 't is not by works but by free forgiveness his Reasoning had not been Cogent For the Jews might well have replyed you speak but of one part of Justification and so conclude not about the whole That part indeed you prove to consist in the forgiveness of sin in the way of saith but it appears not but that there may be other parts also in Justification and they may result from works And so a man may be in part justified by free forgiveness and grace and in part by works Thirdly the Apostle very plainly makes the blessedness that David describes which in the blessedness of pardon and not imputing iniquity to be the blessedness of Justification For in the 9th ver Cometh this blessedness upon the circumcision only or upon the uncircumcision also that is the blessedness of Justification by faith which
longer be under a Law of works but under a Law of grace The Law could not attain its natural end by reason of mans impotency and so 't was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ Nor did it in Christ for the Law required an unsinning righteousness from every particular person and not from Christ to satisfie for all others That depends purely upon Gods ordination To all unbelievers the Law remains still in force as it was first given and the wrath of God abides upon them thereby but to those that believe and so are within the Kingdom of the Mediator the Law is not in force as a Law of works but re-established by Him as part of the New Law and upon the same gracious terms that all other gospel-precepts are For the Apostle tells us we are not under the Law but under grace and yet tells us also the law is established by the Gospel All that discuss this point ought still to consider that our Justification is not Legal but Evangelical For we are justified with respect to the Law that is interested in Christs satisfaction upon performance of the Gospel-Condition and not otherwise 'T is not by the Law of Works any way considered that we are Actually and Personally justified The Apostle so concludes Rom. 3.38 A man is justified without the deeds of the law But 't is by the law of faith Whatever the Law of works requires God has accepted of satisfaction for our non-performance of it in our Surety and Representative and has impowered him to offer salvation upon the terms of a better covenant And the righteousness of God the Apostle tells us is now manifested without the law Our Justification is now upon the terms of a new recovering law of grace And 't is the righteousness of that we are now only obliged to perform When we are impleaded at the Bar of the Law we plead satisfaction in Christ for our Non-performance when we are impleaded at the Bar of the Gospel and put to prove our personal interest and propriety in that satisfaction then we are obliged to manifest our performance of the Gospel-condition and evidence the truth of our faith by which we are intituled to it Our Plea must then lye there So that with reference to the Law we are Justified that is Judicially pardoned and acquitted in judgment upon satisfaction made with reference to the Gospel upon performance of the condition And faith looks both wayes respects both the Law and the Gospel and comprizeth all that is requisite to our Justification with reference to both All the Charge of the Law it Answers ratione Objecti in respect of its Object which is Christ And all that is required by the Gospel ratione sui as being it self the performance of the Condition annexed thereunto To suppose that every Justified person as necessarily requisite to his Justification must be actually and personally possessed of all that unsinning obedience the strict rules of the Law required is a great mistake for none was ever so but Christ himself who became a Publick Satisfaction and Ransome for the whole Should any man now be Justified under the law of faith upon a strict performance of the law of works any way considered the Law would not then be relaxed but still strictly executed Now the truth is the Law is neither executed nor abrogated but relaxed and dispenced with Executed it is not for who then could be saved And the Apostle tells us Rom. 8. There is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus And abrogated it is not For 't is in full force a dreadful consideration to the wicked unbelieving part of the world with all its rigour against all those that do not believe and obey the Gospel and under the Gospel it self though we are freed from the curse of the Law yet we are still under the government of the Law in the sense before mentioned The condemning power is only taken off the commanding power is still continued And as some say though I think such ought well to consider what the Apostle sayes 1 Cor. ch 3. v. 22. not all the condemning power neither in matters temporal for the best men are still subjected to death natural and many sorrows And besides either a man must be possessed of such Legal Righteousness inherently or imputatively Inherently he cannot for the Scripture tells us that by the works of the Law no man living can be justified Nor can he be by way of imputation personally possessed of it For Christ himself did not nor could not in person perform all those individual acts the Law requires from every person that is Justified by it For when Christ is said to fulfill all righteousness 't is meant all made necessary by the law of his Mediatorship for himself to perform and not what every individual man was bound to perform And therefore no such imputation can ever be supposed unless we will suppose God to account me to have done that in Christ which Christ never did himself and in the Nature of the thing 't was impossible he should do Or else to account me to have done in mine own person all that Christ himself did in his person and so to be righteous in the very same spotless way and to the same transcendent degree that Christ was The only difference between those that assert the form of Justification to consist in the pardon of sin and those that say 't is requisite besides forgiveness of sin farther to take in the righteousness of Christ by imputation and that we should be pronounced righteous in judgment therein is this Whether Christs righteousness shall be reckoned and imputed to us in a way of Satisfaction made for our sins and disobedience upon a sincere belief of the Gospel and we reckoned righteous upon that account or whether it shall be so imputed as to be personally reckoned our own and to be adjudged righteous by God not for but in that very righteousness In both cases our Justification is bottom'd upon Christs alone righteousness and the imputation of it to us If the first be true then 't is undenyable contrary to what is objected that our Justification is our pardon and our pardon upon satisfaction made and accepted and the condition performed is that upon which we are constituted personally righteous For satisfaction made for an offender naturally and necessarily operates that way and cannot operate any other in judgment the vertue of it must needs be issued in pardon Now that the first is much likelier to be true and has much more of rational probability in it besides Scripture-testimony where we are said to be Ransom'd Redeem'd Purchased Bought with a price which all relate to satisfaction then the Later does from hence appear by that we are Justified as Sinners upon compensation made for our sins and are brought into a Righteous state by the pardon of them which is plainly the truth