to be Pardon because the Formal Righteousness of our Justification which is the Righteousness of Faith only imputed to us for Righteousness is not a Righteousness that hath offended in nothing and obeyed in every thing as Mr. Truman describes Pardon but is an inchoate imperfect Righteousness that hath Failings covered with Christ's Satisfaction and its Work done I may say still accepted only through his Merit so that the more acute this Man is and the further he does go the more he is out and must be so long as he hath not once the Sence upon his Mind through his whole Book called The Great Propitiation nor in his other two of the Righteousness of God which the Apostle himself gives us as the Handle and the only Handle to understand his Doctrine of Justification by This one thing yet is to be noted that these worthy Men that define Justification by Pardon only and say it is impossible that a Sinner can be justified or made and accounted righteous any otherwise do yet plead for a Personal Evangelical Righteousness as necessary to Justification as much or more than others Witness Sir Charles Wolesley This now to me is a Contradiction unless it be understood à parte post only For if Pardon only can make a Sinner righteous how can there be any Personal Righteousness preceding it The Matter is thus Before a Man believes and repents he is not pardoned or made righteous by Pardon that is certain When a Man performs the Evangelick Condition it is the Evangelick Law or God by it as his Instrument makes him or constitutes him righteous and being thereby so made God must account him so which is all one with imputing that Condition performed for Righteousness or justifying him This Constitutive Justification then proceeding in Order of Nature though not in Time Pardon and Life do follow as the Fruit or Benefits of it Note here that when the Evangelick Law does constitute the Performer of the Condition righteous it is righteous quoad hoc only for he is ungodly that is Not righteous still as I say before in regard to the Law but righteous as not guilty of the Accusation of his Non-performance of the Condition of the Gospel So that after this Righteousness Quoad hoc a Universal Righteousness of Not Guilty of any Omission or Commission that brings a Man into a State as if he had offended in nothing and fulfilled the Law in every thing as Mr. Truman describes Pardon does manifestly appear to be a farther Benefit or Blessing than Justification strictly taken What may be understood by it largely taken may be considered hereafter before I have done The Third PART BEfore I come to any Close of my Discourse there is a matter of Four Things to be proposed whether by way of Question or Objection it is indifferent as necessary for the Satisfaction of such as have the Reason Candour and Christian Humility to seek it The First is this The Scripture and those therefore that duly preach it does call upon all Men to believe and repent in order to their Justification and Salvation and when Faith and Repentance are required as Conditions of being justified how can that which is pre-requisite as a Condition be made or become the Form Formal Cause or Formal Reason of Justification This I put first because I believe here that nothing almost that a Scholar who hath got Aristotelian Terms in his Head putting his Physical Constructions on Divinity Points is like to be more gravell'd at than at this But it is nothing let Terms or Words be once look'd through for it is this is the very thing I affirm and stand upon that what God hath made the Condition of his Covenant and the Blessings thereof and so of our Justification before it is performed when perform'd does become the Formal Righteousness that justifies us God does by that Act of Imputation Instrumentally done by his Word make our Faith which is not in itself a Righteousness to become our Righteousness and as it becomes a Righteousness it is made the Formal Reason of our Justification There is the Carpenter's Work the Bricklayer's Work the Smith's Work goes to the Building a House There must be therefore Timber Bricks and Iron prepared and the preparing these are Conditions of the Building or Materials before but when the House is built they all put together are the House it self and as a House the Formal Cause Formal Reason or Form of it A Second Thing to be proposed is this Our Divines we know do ordinarily bring together Remission of Sin and the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness into the Matter of our justification and when the Assembly have given us a Definition comprizing the same Things I do in mine why should I offer another Unto this I will make that Answer as ought to content any honest Man that would have but such a one as he would be allowed himself to give and I say that I do readily give my Suffrage to the Assembly's Catechism to be learned and used above any I know and am not concern'd though a Learner of it be not so accurate in his Understanding as to see any Difference between my Definition and theirs when what is in mine is in theirs and what in theirs is in mine I am perswaded that a believed grosser Knowledge of the Principles of Religion is better for ordinary People than that which is more exact and I receive all that is in their Definition only with liberty of Explication In Justification I acknowledge a Forgiveness and an Imputation of Christ's Obedience but I do not acknowledge either as our Formal Righteousness I say Forgiveness is a Benefit we receive by it but it is not the Formal Reason of it and I acknowledge Christ's Righteousness imputed Sub genere causae efficientis per modum meriti and so received by Faith not in itself but in the Merit of it only And I give Notice that he who thinking more does say that Christ's Righteousness In fe is made ours Legally tho' Physically and Morally he disowns it that Man must make it to justifie us Sub ratione causae formalis when perhaps he does not know it which is an unadvised Position I look upon as that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of our former great Divines which gave the Rise to Antimonianism A Third Thing to be proposed is Our Protestants have their Mouths full of Christ's Righteousness imputed when the Scripture hath no such Expression and what hath not Authority from Scripture may be again refused Eadem facilitate says Hierom as it hath been received It is sit therefore this be a little examin'd into and there may be two Questions ask'd The one What is there in the thing at bottom as to the reality and truth of it The other And what then shall we say to it For the First That which is in reality in this Matter The Imputation of Christ's Righteousness is that Christ by the
as the full Tale be brought in or no Righteousness of Christ imputed no Merits of Christ otherwise to be applied Whereas if the End of Christ's doing and suffering what he did in our behalf was that what we do our selves by his Spirits preventing and assisting Grace shall be imputed to us for Righteousness which is the very Truth seeing the Scripture says it that it is our Faith to wit a sound Faith working by Love is and shall be so imputed that is our Faith Repentance New Obedience is accepted in regard to the Reward instead of that Righteousness the Law required to our Justification then we see what Line we have given us for the actuating our Faith and reliance on God's Grace Goodness Mercy and Christ's Merits for Pardoning our Failings as I am saying and taking what is done in such good part as to reward it with Life seeing it is for Christ's sake altogether for his Merits sake only not for its value that it finds acceptation which is the greatest Encouragement to our Endeavours and consequently to a Holy Life that can be in the World I will add that God our Judge who is gracious and wise does consider the diverse Natures Tempers Natural Infirmities Temptations of Men and Women and hath his Grains of Allowance for all according to these Circumstances so as that shall be accepted for the Condition performed in one that falls exceeding short of what is done by another Alas there are such diverse Sizes of God's Children so vast a disproportion I mean as to the Degrees of their Grace that one would hardly think them the Children of the same Father What a Difference is there between a Seth and a Sampson Rahab and Elizabeth Who would think that one Heaven should hold them both He knoweth our Frame and remembreth we are but Dust Upon which Account we read so often of his Compassions toward the Weak and Fainting which gives us this Ground for our trust in him to bear with our Frailty in mollifying to some the Condition Not but all must be Sincere but that this Sincerity is of diverse Degrees in the Sence I speak in regard to God's Acceptance and Grace which hath no Bounds to be set by any And now if any pious Brother shall go to take away this Doctrine from us and the Fruit of it I will wish him to take heed to his own and consider whither it leads If Christ hath died for the Sinner so that God looks on the Sinner to have satisfied the Law in Christ then should he preach this Gospel He should declare to all and every of his Hearers that God is in Christ reconciled to him and that he is to believe it's Christ hath died for Sinners thou art a Sinner All are Sinners Christ hath died for all and thou art to believe thy Sins forgiven Thou art not to believe only that there is Forgiveness of Sins and Everlasting Life but that these Articles through Christ are thy Possession Who loved Me and gave himself for Me. In Christ's Obedience and Sâ—fferings thou hast obeyed the Law and satisfied the Penalty and therefore art justified and in a State of Salvation As for Good Works they are indeed to be done out of Gratitude afterward God commands them and they please him and they do good to Men and therefore thou must do them but nothing is to be done for thy self but believe only in order to thy Justification and Salvation Let a Man but believe once in good earnest that it is so he cannot choose but love God and Jesus Christ and that Love will constrain him to Obedience If you hold the Doctrine of Election he must not stick at that but he must believe also he is Elect and indeed that none but the Elect can believe that is thus believe Or that there can be this Fiducia specialis misericordiae in none ever but the Elect only and therefore is it called The Faith of God's Elect. And what says any of my sober Brethren to this Doctrine Can he find in his Heart to preach it when Christ when John when Peter Acts 2.38 when they began to preach did preach Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand I confess that Luther as I apprehend did at first preach at this rate which was the way to fetch in so many by the Shoals as he did from Popery when the World was groaning under the Burden of their Priests Impositions their Penances Satisfactions Fastings Scourgings praying to Saints worshipping Images Pilgrimages Indulgences besides the Vows of Chastity Poverty and Monastical Obedience as to the more Religious whereby they were made to believe they merited Salvation for themselves and others It was glad Tydings now and a welcome Gospel to the World at this time to tell them that it is Faith alone in opposition to these Works that justifies and saves Men. Nevertheless when that excellent Man saw the Effect of his own Doctrine that such as he had turned from Popery began to run as fast to Antinomianism and Libertinism he saw occasion to change his Preaching to press the Law and Repentance as much as others Nor was the Doctrine of Preparatory Works Man's lying at the Pool Refused but Sated and Approved by his Followers A Convinced Sinner is the only Subjectum capax Justificationis even with Dr. Owen Of Just p. 133. The Second PART I Know that several of our chiefest Divines have been so far from imbibing the Sence of this Righteousness which is my Theme The Righteousness of God revealed in the Gospel that their Doctrine in opposition to the Papists is extream in the thwarting without being truly aware of it When those Prudential Catholicks who understand that Qualitas Gratiae infusa non Natura sua sed ex Dei acceptatione ordinatione habet ut Hominem Deo gratum reddat are to be heard rather than them Nay the deep and acute Mr. Baxter so far as I remember any thing he has never came to lay this Righteousness of God enough to his Thoughts when nothing almost else escapes him as it appears by his frequent approbation or mention of the Learned Sober Logically Judicious Mr. Anthony Wotton and sometimes Mr. Hotchkis his Follower I will examine therefore a little into Mr. Wotton's Opinion Justification by him is thus defined It is Reconciliationis pars qua Deus in Christum credentibus fidem reputans ad justitiam omnia illis peccata condonat Reconciliation is God's Return into Grace and Favour with Sinners as he says whom Sin had made his Enemies through Satisfaction given him by Christ God is said to be angry with Sin and Sinners and upon Christ's Satisfaction and their Repentance to be appeased or reconciled Not that Man's Repentance or Christ's Satisfaction works any change in God but Ex Connotatione Objecti God is denominated Man's Repentance changes himself and Christ's Satisfaction makes a change in the Order of Things but God is unchangeable while yet the
Scripture speaks Lingua Filiorum hominum as the Jews say Or as the Schools Secundum nostrum concipiendi modum in many Matters incomprehensible To leave Mr. Wotton's Genus Definitionis therefore to himself without farther concern he hath defined Justification by Remission of Sin in opposition to those that define it by the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness and he hath elaborately proved this to be the Sence of the Church of England and Calvin's with many others I do now agree with Mr. Wotton herein in excluding the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness in his Sence intended that is as our Formal Righteousness out of the Definition because there is no such thing as the Imputation thereof In se tho' the Merit of it be imputed to Believers as to the Effects But I do not agree with him in making Remission of Sin to be that he wont let the other be the Form or Formal Reason of our Justification Because I hold with Mr. Bradshaw our Actual Pardon to be the Effect or Benefit of it The Righteousness of God which is not yet throughly understood by Protestant or Papist and I have made the Subject of this Dissertation is indeed that Formal Righteousness we are seeking and I do not think that any Man in his first natural reading Paul's Epistle to the Romans who brought not his Understanding from without to the place did ever apprehend by that Righteousness of God now Revealed when Remission of Sin was a thing never Hid that Pardon only is to be understood I will advise every Judicious Man therefore when any material Point is concerned in a Text to ponder it in the Original several times 'till he come to some Resolution about it in his own Mind because when he hath sucked in the Sence of another his own Judgment is worth nothing Mr. Wotton hath said enough to turn a Man to his Opinion he is so rational a Man but having been myself otherwise inclined as to the Sence of this Righteousness and finding the Scripture calling no Man righteous but upon the Account of doing righteously I cannot comply with Mr. Wotton in his Notion nor with the contrary in such as the hitherto prevailing Dr. Owen in theirs The Ministry of the Gospel is called the Ministration of Righteousness upon the Account of this Righteousness as also the Ministration of the Spirit in regard of the Grace the Spirit brings to perform it which Austine I remember in his Book De Spiritu Littera hath told us It can by no means be called the Ministration Thereof in regard to Remission of Sins There are many the like Arguments I think I could find out against Mr. Wotton's Opinion but that my Discourse is rather to be Demonstrative than Elenctical and therefore I must not omit that place in Daniel where it is prophesied that Christ shall bring in Righteousness that is a Righteousness procured by his Death and Merits and called an Everlasting Righteousness being that by which they that ever were are or shall be so are justified and saved and it is said brought in and at such a time when the Messiah shall be slain as it is said Now Manifested or Revealed by the Gospel which is I said but now the Ministration of it To which purpose it is to be understood and observed farther that Righteousness as well as Reconciliation and the making an End of Sins is one End of our Redemption which I have explained more * That the End of Christ's coming in the World of our Redemption and the Covenant of Grace was that we should be holy and righteous is said ordinarily by Divines according to the Scriptures but the right and plain Understanding or Reason of what they say is not said by them He hath chosen us in Christ that we should be Holy He hath redeemed us from Iniquity that we should be a peculiar People We are his Workmanship created unto Good Works in or through Christ Jesus Well! when God made Man at first and gave him a Law was it not that he should live holy And when Righteousness then was the End of his Creation and the Law thereof how is this said to be the End of his Redemption I answer therefore Righteousness or Holiness as they are one we must know does lie in a Conformity to the Law which God gives us There is nothing less than this the full Performance of a Law given that is Righteousness Upon this Account as soon as Man once fell and broke the Law of his Creation it is impossible he should be righteous any more unless there were a New Law brought in in the Performance whereof he might attain to that again which he had lost Now to this End was it that Christ came and died This was the very main Business I count of his Redemption as to free us from Condemnation by the Old so even the procuring this New Law or another Law with lower Terms which some Men performing they do thereby become righteous and so have Righteousness according to that Law imputed to them for Remission and Life Eternal Here you see what that Righteousness indeed is which Christ is said to bring in and in what Sence he hath brought it in or how such Texts as these before does attribute our Holiness to him It is called an Everlasting Righteousness as the Gospel is called the Everlasting Gospel because it is the Righteousness in opposition to that of the Law or of Works that all Men from the Beginning of the World to the End of it do obtain Everlasting Salvation Mid. Way of Justif p. 43. other-where Daniel 9.24 Titus 2.14 Well! you will say then if the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness be not the Form of our Justification nor Remission of Sins when some Protestants say the one and some the other and some both what then is the Form of it I answer Mr. Wotton hath told us truly in the rest of his Words It is God's imputing to a Man his Faith for Righteousness This is Scripture express and the Righteousness of God I am treating of is otherwhere called the Righteousness of God by Faith and the Righteousness of Faith for that is express Scripture also Justification supposes a Man just Justificationis formam justitia constare certum est God cannot account a Man righteous without a Righteousness The Papists therefore are hot here with Calvin that will have a Man be justified only by Remission of Sins without an inherent Righteousness and the Protestants as hot with the Papists that will have any inherent Grace or Righteousness of ours to be such as answers the Law that it should justifie us for by Righteousness both understand a Conformity to the Law of Works Both therefore are out There is no such inherent Grace as answers the Law nor any Grace from without either Remission of Sins or Christ's Righteousness imputed that is or can be our Formal Righteousness but it is Faith which is Grace and
the Remission which precedes Justification It must be understood of this Universal Conditional Remission Reconciliation Redemption when that Remission which comes after Justification as its Effect that is Particular Absolute or Actual Remission is made so or obtained only upon the Terms of the Gospel As in our Laws when a Law that is good proves inconvenient we make a New one that does not Repeal that Law but brings a Remedy against that Inconvenience So is it here The Law of Innocency or Nature is good and such as stands and must stand in all respects Unrepealed for ever but upon Man's Fall there being this Inconvenience that no Man being able to perform it perfectly we must all perish a New Law is obtained by Christ and granted by God or an Act of Grace passed by way of Remedy a Remedying Law which Enacts thus That tho' a Man does not fulfil this Law of Works as all ought yet if he Believes and Repents only he shall be pardoned and saved Every Man that does not is condemned already but if he does as soon as he does he is justified by this New Law from that Condemnation When I see Men denominated Righteous through the Old and New Testament only from their upright Walking with God and yet the most Upright to have their Failings and to place their Comfort and Hopes in God's Mercy and Grace to pardon their Failings and accept their Endeavours to please him notwithstanding their Imperfections as we may observe more especially in the Psalms When those Christians that have gone before us holy Men and Fathers have signified the like Temper in such like Expressions Tota justitia mea Domine est tui indulgentia Vae hominum vitae quantumvis laudabili si remota misericordia judicetur Inhaerens justitia sanctorum in hac Vita magis remissione pâ—ccatorum constat quam perfectione Virtutum Ego fidenter quod ex me mihi deest usurpo mihi ex visceribus Domini quoniam miserecordia affluunt nec desunt foramina per quae effluunt Omnia facta deputantur cum quod non fit ignoscitur And when in their Prayers after Confession of Sin they have been wont as they used to express themselves to fly from God's Tribunal of Justice to his Throne of Grace from his Severity to his Mercy through Christ Which through Christ must be for his Merits sake not through his imputed Righteousness for then they should stay at the Bar of his Justice still and by the Law be justified When I say I let these Reflections enter my Soul I cannot but be perswaded that the Righteousness of God whereof I am speaking and the Gospel hath Revealed to be that Righteousness whereby we are justified in opposition to Works must receive between Protestant and Papist a Middle Exposition And what now is said hitherto may be confirmed by the Light it brings for the understanding several Scriptures which are otherwise very hard of Interpretation I will begin with that in Romans the First where we find a Free Gift mentioned in several places which by the Righteousness of One came upon All Men the Apostle speaks unto Justification What is that Free Gift In one Verse we are told it is the Gift of Righteousness But what Righteousness Is it the Righteousness of Christ Our Protestants even the judicious Davenant against the Papists say so but it cannot be For that which comes by the Righteousness of One cannot be that Righteousness of One itsself nor Justification itself that follows it What is it then Why very probably this Righteousness of God we are speaking of that runs so much in the Apostle's Mind which is on God's part the Grace of the Gospel that gives Pardon and Life upon Condition of Faith and so brings Salvation to all Men procured by this Righteousness of One and that as the Medium to Man's Justification By this Key let him that will and has a better Faculty of Words than I open for me the rest of the Chapter I proceed to another Text Rom. 3.31 Do we then make void the Law by Faith God forbid Yea we establish the Law How is that The Law is established I remember Austin tells us Implendo and Faith does establish it by fetching Grace from God to fulfil it So he I add by fetching not only this Grace which is Inherent and Operative but that Grace which is Favour and Mercy in pardoning all that is defective and accepting what is done how weak soever if sincere notwithstanding those Failings unto Life through the Merits of Christ Jesus Or thus It is done by Faith because Faith which is sound and works by Love is this very Righteousness of God on our part we speak of which he accepts of unto Life instead of that of the Law upon Christ's Account And here are there certain Words I meet with in Melancthon and Chemnitius which tho' not in their perfect Sence may be used and approved Faith establishes the Law say they Dupliciter by Inchoation and by Imputation By Inchoation in the New Obedience whereof Faith is the Principle or Faith receives the Spirit as they speak to work in us that Obedience And then by Imputation in that our inchoate Obedience being imperfect and not answering the Law Faith doth apply the Satisfaction and Merits of Christ already intimated for the pardoning all its Defects and rendring it acceptable to God for his sake This I take to be agreeable to the Father before quoted Tunc tota lex impletur quando id quod non fit ignoscitur Only I must add Et quando id quod fit imputatur ad justitiam propter Christum I know these worthy Followers of Luther and also most of Calvin's Followers do understand by their Imputation more than thus even no less than that Christ's Righteousness is made ours by Faith so as God does reckon the Believer to have satisfied and obeyed the Law in him Upon supposition of which Notion here were so easie a Construction to be made of these Texts and others that are chiefly stood upon that no wonder if after one or two such Leaders there were so many embraced it If Christ's Righteousness which is perfect be in a Law-sence the Believer's then in a Law-sence the Believer performs it and so the Law is established according to this place In a Law-sence he is made Righteous by the Obedience of One and so becomes as Righteous as that One according to another Text Rom. 5.19 He is made the Righteousness of God in him Indued with the Righteousness of him who is God according to 2 Cor. 5.21 But the words Of and In Of God and In Him do plainly shew that God and Him are two and consequently that serious Man Mr. Mather with such other Divines must be out when they understand by the Righteousness of God the Righteousness of Christ who is God seeing this Construction makes them one * Justitia Dei est finis sive effectum ex
this Comfort here tho' none else in the World for this alone is worth a World that we may must ought to trust lean cast our selves upon the Satisfaction and Merit of Christ for pardoning all our Failings and accepting our poor Mite and if the Soul remains in doubt it must quiet itself upon him If with the Pharisee I justifie myself God may condemn me If I condemn myself with the Publican he may acquit me And what must I do in this Case Behold O Lord I am at thy Bar and I commit my Cause unto my Judge Thy Bar is a Bar or Throne of Grace I cast myself on thy Grace And the Lord send me a good Deliverance at the Great Day As for Actual Pardon and Life that follows Justification the Merit is to be attributed to that which procured Justification on that Condition There is nothing of Merit but Christ's throughout It is Christ's Satisfaction runs through all I must still say as the Meritorious Cause when Performance of the Condition becomes thereby the Formal Cause of our Justification I know how hardly this is like to be received by many when Dr. Owen will allow nothing of any Personal Righteousness or any Works Legal or Evangelical but excludes them all from our Justification supposing that if it be of Works any way it is not of Grace at all when it is therefore of Faith or upon the Evangelick Condition that it may be of Grace Dr. Owen is a Person whose Name I honour for his Worth Learning Comprehensive Parts and one in whom was more of a Gentleman as to his Deportment than in any Divine I knew ever among us Yet is he more Authorative sometimes in his Book than he needs which being liable to hurt the humbly Inquisitive I will speak the more positively in this matter that the Doctor is out as I believe and never came to the plain true knowledge of what Paul means by the Works he opposes to Faith in this Point of Justification Which Works are such as would justifie a Man in the Apostles Account if he had them but that no Man is justified by Works because he has them not This I am past doubt is Paul's meaning and in this particular the Learned and Honoured Sir Charles Wolesley before quoted is rather to be attended A Man says Sir Charles that has not a Legal Sinless Perfection is that Paul means by the Ungodly Rom. 4.5 In my first Papers I wrote I had this Sence of the place and I have it before and in my Pacification I say the like of that Text * For solving this Matter Austin and from him the Schools distinguish of Opera Naturae and Opera Gratiae We are not saved by Works or according to Works done in our own Strength but by Works done by Grace But is this the Apostle's meaning No I have shewn in my Book of Just that One Thing of Three wherein Austin was out and hath misled the Schools is this Notion of Grace By Grace he understands still this inherent Grace or Operation of God's Spirit in us when Paul understands it of that without his Favour or Condescension to us Not of Works but of Grace is all one as not of Desert but of Favour only Grace is Mercy without or contrary to Merit Now when the Papist receives the Solution mentioned the Protestants generally will have all Works tho of the Regenerate to be but Rags and Christ's Righteousness alone to save us But they are both out for Paul's meaning it plainer than they think Not by Works of Righteousness we have done The Righteousness which the Jew hath done is living according to the Law of Moses The Righteousness which the Gentile hath done is his living according to the Law of Nature There is neither one or the other that fulfil that Righteousness which answers God's Law so as it should be able to save him and therefore it is of Grace or Mercy that Any are saved Pacif. p. 29. Not by the Works of Righteousness we have done but according to his Mercy he saved us Which Words have put so many to the inventing Distinctions when the right understanding is to make none the meaning being only Not by the Works of Righteousness we have done because we have not done them and it must be of Mercy therefore and in another way we are saved or not at all See the Quotation above The Works then I have said there and here and must still say which Paul means are such as would justifie us such as would make the Reward of Debt if we had them that is perfect Works Such says the Judicious Le Blanc as the Law requires to Justification And as for that the Doctor hath in answer to this that it is a wild Imagination that the perfect Works of the Law will not justifie us but imperfect Works which answer not the Law will do so it does confirm what I judge of the Doctor 's Conceptions that certainly he never understood the Apostle as to this Matter who I say excludes not Works of the Law from Justification as if they would not justifie us if we had them but because none have them to be justified by them It is therefore the Righteousness of God the Righteousness of the Evangelick Condition that he in his Mercy through Christ's Merits hath instituted in the room of Works to justifie the Christian And as for the Doctor 's quoting Socinus saying this to prejudice the Reader against it I must needs say I like this excellent Doctor 's Judgment the meaner and seeing I took the Notion from Scripture and am sure I am no Socinian myself Socinus was a Man of Reason and it is to be lik'd the better for that It is a thing whether so proposed or not more worth the Thoughts of a serious Man how the Doctrine of Justification as formerly it hath been taught and is maintained by the Doctor can be made to lodge with the Doctrine of Sanctification or Regeneration in the same Scripture or be preached together in the same Gospel The Papists are so careful to have these agree that they make them one The Protestants are so careful to keep them asunder that they will not have any Works of ours not Faith itself as a Work or the Fruits of it Repentance and a Good Life to be brought into our Justification least by going to establish our own Righteousness we submit not to the Righteousness of God and perish Let the Works be wrought in us says the Doctor Of Just p. 524. if they be also wrought by us I fear their Introduction into our Justification doth include beasting This he adds is a dangerous Point even like to make us lose all the Benefit we might otherwise expect by the Grace of God I cannot but remember since I was young holy Mr. Shepherd's Book The Sincere Convert and do reflect sometimes on that Terror the Reading that and the like Books hath wrought in