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-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
Deductions as these as That God sees no sin in his Children That a believer need not pray for the Pardon of fin but only for the Manifestation of it That God loved Noah when Drunk and David when acting Murder and Adultery And many more such consequences that worthy person mentions Those passages of Scripture that seem most to countenance this opinion and are chiefly insisted on for the proof of it are these three 2 Cor. 5.25 He hath made him to be sin for us that knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him From whence it is thus urged How did Christ become sin for us Not by inherency but by imputation So do we become the Righteousness of God in him In answer to which I say Christ became 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for us that is a sacrifice for sin For so it signifies as well as barely Sin as also the Latin piaculum which is often taken for a sacrifice of expiation as well as Sin And in the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is frequently used to signifie a sacrifice for sin And this is an expression relating to the sacrifices under the Old Testament And the proper rendering of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a sin offering So that the plain meaning of the Text seems to be this Christ that was without all sin was made that is ordained of God to be a sacrifice for sin that we might be made thereby righteous with the Gospel-righteousness For that is the general meaning every where of the Righteousness of God 'T is opposed to mans righteousness and the righteousness of works which is by the Law If it be pressed farther and affirmed That sin it self was so imputed to Christ as that God in judgment did reckon him guilty and a sinner which the Scripture no where tells us and 't is great impiety to assert He is then excluded from all possibility of merit for the suffered but what was his due and so the whole of Christs satisfaction is subverted But he freely suffered the punishment of sin that was infinitely removed from the guilt and desert of it and thereby redeemed us became sin in that sense that so we might be made the righteousness of God in him Now by the righteousness of God sometimes is meant in Scripture the Personal righteousness of the Mediator who was God-Man and sometimes the righteousness of Faith that righteousness that faith is accounted for and which in the Gospel is conditionally required of every saved person And this is so called because 't is a righteousness of Gods contriving of Gods working and of Gods accepting in and through Christ and for the sake of his satisfaction If you ask me for a Text to prove this latter there are many I will only instance in one For they being ignorant of Gods righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God Rom. 10.3 By the righteousness of God here is not meant the Personal righteousness of the Mediator but the Gospel-righteousness of faith and believing by which we are Justified in opposition to the Law which in the next ver the Apostle tells them Christ was the end of for righteousness by his satisfaction so the Apostle expressly calls it in the 6th ver But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise And if you read to the 9th ver he there fully describes this righteousness of God and tells you in other words what it is That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved And the whole Context puts it out of all doubt that by their own righteousness is meant the righteousness of the Law which Moses the Apostle sayes in the 5th ver describes in those words That the man that doth those things shall live by them And by the righteousness of God is meant the Gospel righteousness on our part to be performed which the Apostle sayes in the 6th ver Moses does otherwise describe But the righteousness which is of faith sayes he speaketh on this wise Say not in thine heart who shall ascend into heaven that is to bring Christ down from above c. The word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart that is the word of saith which we preach If we take it in the first sense then the meaning of this Scripture is this Christ became a sin-offering for us and freely underwent the suffering and punishment due to sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him that is that the Righteousness of Christ as Mediator in a way of satisfaction might be appropriated unto us And as he underwent the consequences of our sin so we might reap the effects of his righteousness that we might be interested in his righteousness just as he was in our sins He suffered the penalty of our sins and we reap the fruit of his righteousness and so there is a mutual transferring of our sins and Christs righteousness in the effects and consequences of both but no otherwise If we take it in the other sense which is I believe the sense intended by the Apostle then the meaning is That Christ became a sin-offering for us that we might in pursuance thereof and as an effect of it be made Righteousness in the Gospel-righteousness that is that we by believing in him might be accounted for righteous and so accepted of God The Apostle does not say that we might be made His righteousness or that his righteousness might be made personally ours but that we might be made the righteousness of God in him And the phrase In him is not to be taken personally and literally For when we are said to abide in him 't is to continue stedfast in the doctrine of the Gospel to walk in him is to walk according to the rule of the Gospel to Sleep in him is to die in the saith and hope of the Gospel to marry in the Lord is to marry according to the rules he has prescribed So to be Righteous in him is to be righteous according to the rule of the Gospel to be righteous in the righteousness of his procuring and appointing When we read of Christ in the Gospel we are not alwayes barely to understand his natural Person but to consider him mystically and politically to consider him circumstanced as Head King and Law-giver to his Church and upon that account his Name is often taken in a large and comprehensive sense Another Text of Scripture much insisted on for the proof of Personal imputation is Rom. 5.19 For as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous This text upon due consideration will be found to make nothing at all for any such Imputation and Transferring of righteousness as is pretended The Apostles scope from the
or in Judgement Not by infusing a habit for it is evident that both the Hebrew and the Greek Verbs from whence we must fetch the true sense of the Latin and English are Judicial and Forinsical words and arc scarce ever taken throughout the Bible to Juslify by making inherently Just or Just by Infusion The natural and primitive signification of them both is to justifie Legally and Judicially to make just by Plea and in Judgement And in that original sense or in a sense relative to it and derivative from it are the words generally taken in Scripture When either God is said to Justifie man or man is said to justifie God or one man is said to justifie another or one and the same man to justifie himself for all these wayes we read of Justification in Scripture 't is still without any signification of infusing righteousness or making just that way But that which is intended by the word is to make just defensatively declaratively judicially and not qualitively To give some instance of many Rom. 2. v. 13. Not the hearers of the Law but the doers of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be justified That is pronounced and declared Just in judgment In the 11 Chap. of Job v. 2. Should a man full of talk be justified that is should he be defended and acquitted upon that account because he is full of words Shall that be a sufficient Plea for him So when we are told Pro. 17. v. 15. that To justifie the wicked is an abomination to the Lord 't is meant to justifie them by pleading for them and defending them or to justifie them in judgment while wicked For to justifie them in the other sense to make them inherently just and righteous is no abomination to the Lord but a thing he has every where declared himself to be well pleased with In the 8 of the Rom. St. Paul puts this question Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is God that justifieth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who shall condemn where by Gods justifying is meant his acquitting and clearing in judgment 'T is evident to be such a justifying as stands in opposition to charging and condemning Of the same import are the words most generally wheresoever we find them used by the Holy Ghost either in the Old or New Testament And this we have acknowledged by many of the Papists on the one hand and some of the Socinians on the other though both of them endeavour to prove that Gods justifying men is not his pronouncing them just and his declaring them so in a judicial way but his infusing of habits and making them in themselves actually and habitually righteous Justification in general may be considered as it may relate to two sorts of men First to righteous and innocent men and Secondly to Offenders Justification in both cases supposeth Charge and Accusation and stands in opposition to Condemnation A Righteous person when he is accused and found faultless that is inherently Righteous and Just he is by his righteousness made evident thereby justified that is declared and approved to be just acquitted and cleared both from accusation and condemnation David hath an expression to this purpose of God Psal the 51. That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest That is be justified by being manifested to be really righteous and just So Good men are sometimes said to be justified by their works that is defended and vindicated against false accusation and charge approved and declared to be just thereby A person so qualified is justified because he appears to be in himself righteous and just not righteous and just because justified Secondly an Offender when he is accused he can be no other way justified that is defended against accusation and acquitted in judgment but by pleading ample and proportionable satisfaction made for an offence and an acceptance of that satisfaction as such and procuring a remission of the offence thereupon 'T is not possible to contrive any other way of Justification in that Case For free and absolute remission of an offence cannot well be called Justification The more freely a man is pardoned without any sort of satisfaction the less he can be properly said to be justified Such a man now is not justified because he is found to be inherently just and without fault but he becomes Just is brought into the state of a just man because he arrives at a Legal Justification and upon satisfaction made obtains an acquitment in judgment Justification in scripture as 't is an act of God relating to Men is ever spoken of in this later way 'T is never meant to excuse or justifie a Sinner from being a sinner but to justifie a sinner supposing him a sinner to the utmost All Gospel-justification being founded upon Satisfaction as the grand fundamental of it But to come more nearly to the Scripture-sense and meaning of Justification by which we are generally told that all Sinners unpardoned are under Divine Wrath and stand Condemned at Gods Bar and that such whom God is pleased in the method of his Grace judicially to pardon and receive into favour he is thereby said to justifie To be justified therefore in Scripture sensee is to be Cleared and Discharged before the Tribunal of God from the Guilt of sin resulting from the breach of his Laws and Absolved from the Punishment due from Divine Justice thereunto This without any obscuring Speculation about the nature of Justification in general is that practical account we find the Scripture to give us of it suitable to its nature as it relates to sinful offending Man for it must still be remembred that Gods justifying in Scripture is his giving sentence with the Guilty party and so we can only be righteous because justified and justified by being pardoned and according to what it Operates and effects upon the subject by which also 't is best understood and becomes most accountable to every Capacity I include not herein the Cause of Justification nor the Condition of it but speak of it in its own proper form and simply in it self considered For had I so done I would after this manner have expressed my self Justification is an act of God whereby he does for the sake of Christs Satisfaction to his Justice upon mens sincere Beliefe of the Gospel account their faith for righteousness pardon their sins and Acquit them in Judgement That this Description I have given of Justification and our being justified is that which ought to be given and the direct account we have of it in Scripture will evidently appear from these four considerations Fist Sin being a transgression of Gods Law and so an Offence accountable for to Him nothing less can justify a sinner then the Supream judgement of God Himself as the Soveraign Lord and Judge of all the Earth The Apostle tells us that in few words It is God that justifies And He does it as an
to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself That was the grand thing typified and intended by the sacrifices to be done and that which our Saviour by his coming actually did do as we are told in the 1st chap. of the same book in that expression When he had by himself purged our sins he sate down on the right hand of the Majesty on high That is When he had fully accomplished that great End for which he came into the world which was to procure pardon of sins he then ascended to his Mediatory Throne and the exercise of that Authority If we look into the Gospel in the 26 of St. Matt. where our blessed Saviour first instituted and solemnly himself administred that Sacrament wherein Himself and all the saving Advantages appurtenant to him are represented and conveyed He there calls his Blood the blood of the New Testament shed for many for the remission of sins Declaring that to be the grand Effect of his purchase and the great attainment of the Gospel from whence all our happiness is derived In the 1st of the Ephes v. 7. the Redemption we have by Christ is called the forgiveness of sin In whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins In the 2d of the Acts vers 38. St. Peter there perswades the Jews to embrace the Christian-religion in these words Repent and be baptized for the remission of sins as the great End attainable by the Gospel and all the Institutions of it St. John in the 1st chap. of his 1st Epist tells us that If we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son Cleanseth us from all sin That being the great End of all Gospel faith and obedience to be cleansed from all sin and the in-let to all happiness And 't is that which all the Saints the whole Church unitedly do una voce adore the Mediator for as the grand Effect of his undertaking That he has washed them from their sins in his own blood and thereby made them Kings and Priests unto God and intituled them to all happiness and Glory In a word our Saviour himself summs up and Epitomizeth all those blessings he came to purchase for and confer upon the world and seems to be in the Supreamest exercise of his Mediatory Authority in pronouncing that Benediction Thy sins are forgiven thee Thirdly Whatever other expressions the Scripture makes use of to signifie and represent Justification to us by they all relate to the pardon of sin and give us this sense and signification of it The Scripture expresseth our Justification by three other Terms Sometimes 't is called Redemption sometimes Remission and sometimes Reconciliation And all these have a reference to sin and its forgiveness 'T is called Redemption with respect to that captivity and bondage that is in sin Remission with respect to that guilt and obligation to punishment that is in sin And 't is called Reconciliation with respect to that enmity and opposition to God that is in sin All which we are freed from by the pardon of sin as the great priviledge of a justified state and that wherein it consisteth Fourthly The great Blessing that the Scripture foretold and held forth to the world in the coming of the Messiah and that Covenant of Grace that God would graciously enter into with Mankind was the Remission of sin and blotting out of iniquity Instances of this kind the Scripture abounds with The great effect of Christs coming we are told should be To save his people from their sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity And in divers of the Prophets God declares the Grace of his Covenant to lye per eminentiam in this The pardoning of our iniquities and the remembring our sins no more So St. Peter declares Act. 10.43 To Him give all the Prophets witness that thorough his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive Remission of sins And when God was pleased to make the Attributes of his Mercy and Goodness in an especial manner to pass before Moses and to reveal it to him as it relates to Mankind 't is expressed by That as the Grand and Transcendent Effect of it the pardoning iniquity transgression and sin A third consideration to clear up the truth of this Definition I have given of Justification and which is of great prevailing in the case is this That whenever God pardons any mans sin He looks upon him as a Righteous person does cerstitute him so thereby and deal with him accordingly Where he sees no iniquity there his Countenance is as upon the righteous This I shall make out First from the Reasons of the Thing in it self abstractedly considered that it ought so to be Secondly from plain and positive Scriptures in the case whereby it appears to be Gods ordination that so it should be And thirdly from the Method God is pleased in his wisdom to take in the pardoning and justifying Offenders and the manner of his procedure therein whereby his Righteousness and his Justice become very evident in so doing There be these five Reasons result from the Thing in it self abstractedly considered for the proof of this point First Man in his primary Make was righteous and just that was his Original constitution Sin is but an Accidental Deprivation And therefore when all Sin and Guilt contracted is Legally removed and wholly obliterated 't is but reasonable he should be judg d of by his first state and it falls in naturally so to be Sublata privatione ponitur habitus is a firm Axiom in Logick Not that I am here about to prove that a man is restored barely to the state of Adams Original innocency by the Redemption and Forgiveness of the Gospel for by Gods gracious Ordination we are instated in much more I urge this only to evidence thus much That man being made Righteous and having made himself a Sinner his sin being pardoned and obliterated were there nothing else in the case 't were Just with God to account of him according to what at first he made him Nor can we with any good Reason abstractedly considering him so circumstanced judge of him otherwise then as in a righteous and so happy condition Secondly Remission of all sin is in its own nature constructively and properly enough so called a Righteousness According to that noted saying among the Antient Christians Hominis justicia est Dei Indulgentia He that is chargeable with no offence at Gods Tribunal as he is not that has all his sins both of omission and commission judicially and authoritatively forgiven must needs be Reputed upon even terms with an Observer of the whole Law and have a right to all the advantages appurtenant to an innocent person To want any of them were paena damni and a part of punishment which can have no place where there is no Sin nor Transgression Thirdly Man is a Subject in which
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
Where God hath so forgiven sin all the effects and consequences of it as such an Action are utterly extinguished and so it self ceaseth after a sort to be And he that hath committed Acts of sin when he is Legally pardoned is no more a Sinner nor ought he in Justice so to be accounted For 't was the judgment of the Law by which he is Acquitted that â—â—â—de him so to be 'T is true those sinful Acts do not naturally cease to be but all that was in those Acts obnoxious to the Law from whence their sinfulness arose upon Judicial pardon legally ceaseth to be and that is sufficient in this case For we are not in the discourse of this point making inquiries into a natural or metaphysical existence of things but only into a judicial and legal Secondly Let it be thus farther considered that nothing can more extinguish the denomination of sin and sinner then Legal and Judicial pardon As take it in the present instance of David in those sinful Acts of his The Acts 't is true were the same naturally considered after his pardon that they were before but legally and forensically considered they were not And how is it possible to be otherwise but that the very acts must be still naturally the same For suppose the righteousness of Christ to be personally imputed to David as those that thus Object would have it to be to denominate him a Righteous person and so render him a fit subject for Justification such Imputation will not make the Actions of his own sin to be naturally otherwise then indeed they are nor the Obliquity of them more cease to be then it does by Forgiveness There being no other possible way to bring an offender in the judgment of the Law into a righteous estate and condition but by Judicial pardon And if after such pardon what is here objected be true that the denomination of sin and sinner as such notwithstanding remain it will unavoidably follow by the strict Doctrine or personal imputation that a man may be under the proper denomination of a righteous man and a sinner at one and the same time which implyes a loud Contradiction For a man may be accounted righteous in respect of Christs righteousness personally made his own by imputation and yet he may be justly denominated a sinner however For although his sins be pardoned and cease to be in respect of the guilt of them yet not in respect of the denomination of the subject as 't is here Objected Whoever that was once an offender comes to be justly accounted righteous must first be fully cleared from the denomination of an offender for those two are visibly inconsistent in one subject And nothing else can more Effect that then forgiveness Thirdly To the latter part of the Objection That Justification doth denominate a man to be just and a righteousness is requisite to it A man is not justified and therefore just but just and therefore justified in the order of Justification I Answer The first thing affirmed herein That Justification doth denominate a man to be just and a righteousness is requisite to it is thus true That Justification necessarily supposeth a man to be just and it includeth the notion of his being so one of these two wayes either inherently or legally and judicially the one relates to an innocent persons Justification the other to an offenders And when justified they are both alike just in Law-sense though differently to be considered in the manner of their Justification and in their antecedent condition to it He that is not justified upon inherent righteousness but is an offender he can only arrive at the state of a just man by Legal acquitment in judgment and by having a sentence in law pass for him For whatever satisfaction he makes though it be true that there is virtually contained a righteousness in satisfaction yet being actually an offender in the judgment of the Law till the Plea of his satisfaction be accepted and he thereupon judicially acquitted he can never be accounted of as righteous and so can never be righteous previously to his Justification To speak of a previous righteousness properly so called requisite to an offenders Justification such as will justifie and defend him in Judgment has no tolerable sense in it For it supposeth a man to come under the notion of an offender and a righteous person at the same time This only is true in that case that a sufficient reason must be pleaded for the pardon and Justification of an offender before a righteous Tribunal And that alone can be plenary satisfaction and cannot be any thing else And that upon acceptance must needs produce Pardon And the natural End both of satisfaction and pardon is to re-instate an offender into a righteous condition The second thing affirmed That a man is not justified and therefore just but just and therefore justified is a great Mistake For it relates Justification solely and singly to innocents and renders the Justification of offenders about which the Scripture is only conversant utterly impracticable and impossible Persons inherently righteous are justified because found so and their Justification is but affirmative and declarative of such inherent righteousness But offenders are brought into the state of Just men upon legal pardon and discharge Nor can any Satisfaction in its nature operate farther Thirdly 'T is Objected That God requires a positive righteousness of us conformable unto his Law in the perfect obligation of it And therefore it follows that meer remission of sin under what distinction soever cannot be our righteousness Remission of sin frees from punishment but 't is perfect obedience that entitles us to eternal happiness To this I answer Legal sinless-righteousness which the Law requires God accepts satisfaction for in Christ 'T is Gospel-righteousness we are now to enquire after If God had not accepted Christ in our stead and his satisfaction to answer for all our obligements to the law as a Law of works and super-induced a better covenant thereupon this Argument had been good But seeing he has 't is of no force at all The Apostle tells us Rom. 10.4 that Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth To understand which expression of the Apostle aright we must consider Finem alicujus rei as the School-men speak dici dupliciter in quem tendit res vel naturaliter vel ex ordinatione Agentis The End to which the Law naturally tended was such a particular personal sinless-righteousness in each man as he might justifie himself upon and claim the reward promised as a debt due This end the Jews pursued and sought after and the Apostle rejects as appears in the 3d ver But the end to which the Law tended by the ordination of God was Christs righteousness to make satisfaction for our disobedience and thereby to introduce another method of Justification in a way of saith and believing that we might no
if it had never been broken And his voluntary subjecting himself to the Curse and penalty of it made as great and honourable a satisfaction to it as if being broken the utmost penalty had been insticted upon every particular Offender Fourthly That which compleated perfected and crowned this satisfaction was Gods ordination A Statute made in Heaven that so Christ being himself freely willing should do and that should be accepted in so doing obtain his End and see the travel of his soul and be satisfied In the 10th of the Heb. we find this fully expressed by a Quotation out of the Psalms where David speaks in the person of Christ Then said I lo I come in the volume of the book it is written of me to do they will O God And in the 10th ver the Apostle tells us By that Will we are sanctified by the offering up of the body of Christ In the 3d. of St. Mat. upon Christs being baptized a voice came from Heaven and declared This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Not only with his Person but his Office with his mediatory work and imployment as being of mine own ordination and appointment Upon Christs voluntary undertaking to assume our nature and in that nature to represent us and to subject himself to a Law of Mediatorship such a Law as the performance whereof would contain a compleate satisfaction to Divine Justice God was pleased to ordain it so to be and that all that he Did and Suffered in that Nature should be accepted on our behalf and reckoned and accounted to our advantage and that Mankind should obtain salvation thereby This Ordination of God was the Broad Seal of Heaven affixed to all Christ did This ratified on high was done here below and made all the transaction of Christ on Earth to pass currant in Heaven Had not this been coincident nothing could have prevailed Had not God determin'd above that what Christ did and suffer'd on earth should be that satisfaction to his Justice for the sins of the world in which he would acquiesee and be well pleased and upon which he would ordain the Blessing even Life for evermore No pardon had been proclaimed we had been yet in our sins and the state of all mankind had been no better then that of the fallen Angels and final Impenitents even a fearful looking for of Judgment Two great Mistakes have arisen in the minds of many and of many Worthy and Good men about this matter the rectifying of which is of great and necessary importance First Some have supposed that The whole of Christs satisfaction for our sins consists in his Passive obedience And that his Active obedience is imputed to us to constitute us Personally righteous in God account And so Disjoyn the Active and Passive righteousness of Christ and apply them to Distinct ends and purposes This will appear in it self no way Reasonable and without the least warrant from Scripture First Each of these have their proper Interest in and do respectively contribute to the repairing the honour of Gods injured and violated Law and do joyntly compleat Christs satisfaction The honour of the Law is in a twofold respect to be required in the preceptive part and in the threatning part To what a degree is the Law honoured in the first respect by the perfect obedience of God-man How is the Justice Holiness and Goodness of it proclaimed and solemnized thereby when he disdained not to become obedient to it And to no less a degree is it honoured in the other respect for by his dying and suffering 't is eminently declared what sin deserved And the Justice of the Law is highly evidenced in its threatning and penalty So that these two are by no means to be severed for they contribute inseparably by their Effects to the great work of making one intire satisfaction for the sins of the world and procuring our Pardon Secondly They are in their own nature conjoyn'd and mutually participate of the qualities each of other For Christs active righteousness was all passive His coming from Heaven in the form of a Servant and yielding obedience to the Law here upon Earth had all vast humiliation and suffering in it And he himself was active also in all he suffered to the highest degree for 't was an act of his own free choice without the least constraint so to do No man could have taken his life had not himself made choice of death Thirdly To disjoyn these two and ascribe to them Distinct and Different ends to say that Christs passive obedience is imputed to us to procure pardon of all sin and his active obedience is imputed to us to constitute us righteous seems dangerous in its consequence and tends to make one of them appear altogether useless For if all sin original and actual of omission and commission were fully answered for and pardoned what need we more We must needs be brought into a righteous condition thereby Because the least defect of righteousness is some degree of sin and where there is no degree of sin there must needs be perfect righteousness So if all the active righteousness of Christ were personally by God in judgement reckoned to be ours we could not at the same time be accounted as sinners but in the utmost perfection of innocents And if so What need were there of Christs suffering or of any expiation for sin The Law did not require suffering and obedience both but obliged us either to obey or else to undergo the penalty How much better is the plain Scripture-account of this matter where these two are by God and Christ himself in their end every where conjoyn'd By which we are told that the whole of what Christ did and suffered in all its circumstances unitedly considered is as one intire price of inestimable value by way of satisfaction and valuable consideration paved unto God and by him so accepted for the redemption and Salvation of all such who submit to the terms and perform the condition of the Gospel A second Mistake about this matter is this Some have conceived that both the Active and Passive righteousness of Christ are so made ours by a personal imputation that we our selves are accounted by God in judgment to have done and suffered those very things that Christ himself in his own person did and suffered This conception is so Gross that it is not only to be reckoned amongst such things as are hard to be understood but amongst such things as are impossible to be accounted for to any common understanding The notion of imputation in general is no way to be opposed though we are no where told in Scripture in terminis that Christs righteousness is imputed to us that is 't is impossible for us to partake of the benefits and advantages of what was done by another as done in our stead and upon our account without some sort of imputation God is pleased that the whole of what
to works As Galat. 5.6 I or in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth any thing but saith that worketh by love or that is wrought and perfected by love For so it is best rendered and sometimes opposeth evangelical obedience alone to the works of the Law as Galat. 6.15 Circumcision is nothing nor Vncircumcision but a new Creature And in the 1st of Cor. 7.19 Circumcision is nothing sayes he and Vncircumcision is nothing but the keeping the commands of God where by the commands of God is meant the Law of the Gospel And Circumcision as 't is often in other places is put for the whole Law For whosoever was circumcised the Apostle declares he was obliged to the whole Law By which it plainly appears that whenever St. Paul speaketh against Works in the matter of Justification 't is the works of the Law and not of the Gospel that he intends and so he is to be understood For by the works of the Gospel we come to have a right and title to Justification and Salvation as appears Rev. 22.14 Blessed are they that do his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life That Gospel Works are never excluded but are equally interested with faith in the matter of Justification will appear true beyond any good denyal by these two considerations First That faith that is said to justifie and does only so is a faith that worketh by love which is in other words to say 't is a faith that worketh by a sincere obedience and keeping all the Commands of God Secondly the promises of the Gospel are as well made and the rewards thereof equally annexed to our Gospel obedience as they are to our faith which plainly shews that faith and obedience are inseparably conjoyn'd in this matter and that faith is alwayes so to be understood as comprehensive thereof without it 't is dead is but a Karkass of faith and not such a living faith as the Gospel intends when it speaks of a justifying faith SECT IV. I Proceed to the third and last inquiry which is this How do we come to partake of the benefits of Justification before God and arrive at a justified estate To this the Scripture gives us a plain and ready Answer By peforming the Gospel-Condition For all the advantages that accrue to the world from Christs satisfaction are proposed conditionally to us and no man is actually justified till the condition be performed For whom he called them he justified And upon that account it is that we read in the New Testament of being justified by our faith of being justified by our words and works Gospel-faith and obedience being the condition required on our part to be performed and upon the performance of which we are justified and come to give up our account with joy at the great Judgement day men will be justified and condemned upon their performing or not performing the Gospel condition as we find by our Saviours own words Mat. 25. v. 35. That the Covenant of Grace is in the proposal of it conditional and that Christ with all his saving benefits is by the Gospel offered to us upon terms that we stand obliged personally to perform there needs no other proof then our Saviours own summary words about that matter He that believes shall be saved he that believes not shall be damned And we find Gen. 17. v. 1. When God first proposed the Covenant of Grace to Abraham he annexed sincere obedience to it as the condition of it Walk before me and be thou upright and I will make a Covenant with thee Nor do we find our Saviour ever encouraging any to come to him but upon the termes of taking his yoke and bearing his burden And indeed the Gospel is every where so express in this point and so very many Texts do affirm it that no man but one extreamly intoxicated with the phrenzy of Antinomianism can deny it and it were labour lost to prove it Now in regard the whole Conditionality of the Gospel is comprised in believing and in that one word Faith upon which account we are so often said to be justified by faith 'T is of great concern to arrive at the Scripture sense of this word and its intendment by it And to me it appears very evident That to be justified by faith in Scripture is generally taken to be Justified upon the terms of Christianity and the principles of the Gospel in opposition to Legal and Jewish Justification And by faith is comprehended whatever the Gospel requires of us in order to Justification The Gospel is stiled the Law of faith and whatever is required of us by it is called the obedience of faith Two Extreams are with great caution to be avoided in our conceptions of Gospel-faith First We must not on the one hand imagine that by faith and believing is meant only in the Gospel a bare Crediting of God and giving our assent to the Revelation of Jesus Christ and acquieseng therein For to be a Believer and to be a sincere practical Christian is all one in Scripture sense and When we are told that He that believeth shall be saved and are told in many other places by our Saviour and the Apostles that 't is those only that Obey him also and keep his commandments subduing their corrupt lusts and affections and working out their own salvation with fear and trembling that shall be saved and are generally told by the Gospel that without holiness no man shall see God 'T is a natural and necessary Inference that all that and whatever else is made conditionally necessary to a justified saving state and our continuance therein must be compriz'd in Faith and Believing Or else we shall make the Gospel not to be Correspondent with it self And indeed Faith is never spoke of in Scripture as bare believing and assenting in opposition to acting but as the grand principle of Action and so it is in it self The power of Belief is such that often it works physically and with great efficacy does it operate morally In the 11th to the Heb. the Apostle tells us All the great Actions of those noble Worthyes he mentions done before by faith God being not an object of sense since the world began Since Abels time the spring of all Religious and Godly actions has been faith But the world were never under the Law of faith till the Gospel was published That faith was nothing else and contained nothing farther then a bare Assent to the Revelation of the Gospel as true was that gross Delusion that led so many aside in the first publication of the Gospel Especiallly of St. Pauls Epistles For the Gnosticks and others unlearned and unstable as we find by Hegesyppus in Eusebius wrested the Scriptures and held That barely believing the truth of Christianity and professing it was enough without any thing farther done to save a man Against this it is That both St. John and St. James so fully