act and exercise of his Supream Justice according to that passage Rom. 3. v. 26. That God might be just and the iustifier of him that believeth in Jesus Secondly Gods justifying men stands in opposition to Accusation and Condemnation which we have plainly expressed in the forementioned 8th to the Rom. where the Apostle opposeth Gods justifying to Charging and Condemning Who shall lay any thing to the Charge of Gods elect It is God that justifieth Who is he that condemneth So that if you know what it is to Charge and Condemn you will know what it is to justifie it being naturally evidenced by its Contraries And as Condemnation is the result of a Law so is Justification We stand Condemned by the Law of works and are justified by the Law of faith Now what is it that Mankind is publickly accused of and charged with in Scripture 'T is Sin What is it that men stand condemned for at Gods Bar 'T is Sin And therefore their Justification must needs be a Clearing and Discharging some way or other from it And that which the Scripture every where intends by Justification is the Remission of Sin and Gods acquitting us in Judgment from the Charge Guilt Condemnaâ—ion and Punishment of it This is judiciously observed by Grotius Justificatio ut notum est passim in sacris literis sed maxime in Paulinis Epistolis Absolutionem significat quae presupposito peccatâ— consistit in peccatorum remissione ipso Paul semet clare explicante pr sâ—rtim Rom. 4. Pe Satis Chris chap. 1. pa 38. And this I shall endeavour to prove these several wayes First by producing divers Texts wherein the Foly Ghost speaks expresly of Justification and Forgiveness of sin in the Gospel way as one and the same thing Secondly by shewing that the whole Advantage of that satisfaction upon which as the Ground of it we are justified is generally issued in Scripture into the Forgiveness of sin Thirdly by shewing that whatever other expressions the Scripture at any time makes use of to signifie and Explain Justification to us by they all tend to give us this sense and signification of it and to express it to us as consisting in the forgiveness of sin And fourthly by shewing that the Grand Blessing that God still promised the world should partake of by the Covenant to his Grace and the sending of his Son from whence our Justification has its rise was the Pardon and forgiveness of sin And when I have done this there will be no need I hope to say more for the satisfaction of any under this Consideration For the first In the 4. chap. to the Rom. where St Paul treats more fully and more Critically of Justification then he does in any other place he there describes it in a Quotation out of the Psalms by the forgiveness of sin and the non imputation of iniquity But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness Even as David describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works saying Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sin is covered Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute iniquity Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only or upon the uncircumcision also Where 't is not to be fairly denyed but that he describes the blessedness of a Justified person by the blessedness of a Pardoned person as being one and the same In the 9 ver Cometh this blessedness sayes the Apostle upon the Circumcision only or upon the uncircumcision also What blessedness Why the Blessedness he is treating of the Blessedness of being justified before God which he proves descends both upon Jew and Gentile in the Gospel way of faith and believing And what is that blessedness of being justified before God Wherein lyes it Why 't is the Blessedness he tells us that David describes of having our iniquities forgiven and our sins covered the Blessedness of having God not to impute sin to us 'T is plain the Apostles whole scope and drift is to prove that Abrahams justification was his pardon upon which acccount the Gentiles though great sinners might be justified as well as he and that Justification before God is not by works and so not from the merit of any inherent righteousness of our own but by Gods gracious Imputing righteousness without works which he makes to consist in the Pardon of sin and Not imputing of iniquity and to be the same thing with it In the 13th of the Acts the 38 and 39 verses we find the Apostle again expressing himself to the same purpose Be it known unto you therefore men and brethren that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses Where he speaks of remission of sins and Justification Equivolently as terms importing the same thing In the 18th of Luke where the Publican is said to smite upon his breast and seek for pardon and forgiveness in that expression God be merciful to me a sinner our Saviour says He went home to his house Justified that is Pardoned rather then the proud Pharisee The one justified himself and asked no forgiveness the other condemned himself and sought for the pardon of his sins And by our Saviours own determination took the right method of attaining Justification thereby In the 5th of the Rom. v. 16. The Apostle treating of the difference between Adams sin and the condemnation introduced thereby and the Salvation we have by that tells us And not as it was by one that sinned so is the gift for the judgement was by one to condemnation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the free gift is of many offences unto justification By the free gift of many offences is meant the pardon of them and the pardon of them is unto Justification that is pardon of sin amounts to Justification and upon pardon we are actually justified We are often said in Scripture to have pardon and remission of sins by Christs blood And in the 5th of the Rom. and the 9 vers we are there said to be justified by his blood Much more now being justified by his blood shall we be saved from wrath through him By all which we are told that the scripture generally intends by justification and pardon one and the same thing Secondly The whole advantage and benefit of that satisfaction upon which we come to be justified before God is often issued into the pardon of sin and by the Scripture comprized therein If we look to the Types and Prefigurations of that satisfaction under the Law the grand end and signification of them was the removing and purging of sin This the Apostle tells us Heb. 9.22 Without shedding of blood is no remission And in the 26 ver he sayes Christ had once appeared in the end of the world
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
is all that he would require on our part conditionally to perform This should constitute us righteous upon the terms of the New Covenant This should legally intitle us by the Gospel to all the Advantages of Christ and to a righteous end justified state and this is so far from such a Justification by works as the Jews rested in and St. Paul disputes against that 't is a Justification that results wholly from grace and favour is the Effect of Christs purchase and of the terms of another Covenant And all merit and all reward that can be claimed out of debt is utterly excluded thereby And thus the two Apostles appear perfectly agreed in their doctrine Abraham was not justified upon terms of the Law and sinless perfection but he was justified as an ungodly person one that had sins and failings about him that needed forgiveness was justified by faith in way of the Gospel And that faith that justified Abraham then and justifies every person under the Gospel now and is by the tenour thereof accounted for righteousness is not a naked assent to the truth what God reveals but such a faith as implyes in its nature and comprizeth a suitable obedience to all he requires of us There is a wide difference as much as there is between the nature and terms of the two Covenants between such works as by an inherent vertue in themselves constitute just and so justifie from an innate perfection as to make the reward to be of debt and such works are in their own nature altogether imperfect and faulty and are accepted only thorough grace and favour and made but conditionally necessary to our Justification another way Works 't is true there are in the case both wayes but of very different natures upon very different Accounts and to very different Ends. Secondly On the other hand we must carefully avoid so to apprehend faith supposing it to comprehend all that the Gospel requires of us to believe and practice as if it had in it self any justifying vertue or were of any innate worth to acquit us before God from the guilt of sins The value of it is wholly from Gods gracious ordination as it is all the condition that is required on our part to be performed by the Law of grace And it is not of our selves neither but 't is the gift and bestowment of God We obtain the precious faith of the Gospel St. Peter tell us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Whenever we read of our Justification by faith 't is meant of our being justified in the Gospel way and that is by Christ alone meritoriously and by what he has done and suffered for the Apostle tells us that God for Christs sake hath freely forgiven us Nothing has the least meritorious interest in our forgiveness but Christ Grace and free forgiveness in Scripture is still opposed to our merit and by faith only with respect to its conditional relation to him and that Covenant which he hath purchased and proclaimed and in the method whereof we come to be actually pardoned and justified upon Believing To think otherwise is to subvert the grand design of the whole Gospel which we are often told is to declare Christs Righteousness for the remission of sins and to sot forth him as a propitiation through faith in his blood Faith is no part of the Propitiation but 't is he himself and his blood that is the Propitiation and faith but the conditional means by which we come to reap the fruit and benefit of it The whole Fabrick of the Gospel is bottom'd upon satisfaction made to the Justice of God on our behalf upon a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Savior sayes he came down to lay down his life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a ransome for many And St. Paul to Timothy calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a price of redemption We are every where in Scripture said to be ransom'd redeem'd purchas'd bought with a price And that must needs be by a valuable consideration pay'd and by satisfaction made And St. Peter tells us what that price of redemption is that was payed for us and by which we were purchased and ransomed 't was not corruptible things such as gold and silver or any thing we had to offer to God but 't was with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without spot No works nor performances of our own could ever have reached this purchase or so prevailed as to have been accepted for a satisfaction in this case For then a Justifying Righteousness might have subsequently resulted from the Law of Works which St. Paul denyes and tells us expressly Galat. 2.21 that it could not be that way it could not come by the Law For had there been a possibility of it he tells us it should so have been That is could men either pefectly have kept the Law or have sufficiently answered for the Breach of it ex post facto Righteousness would have been that way and Christ had not dyed for his death had been then in vain Two things still may be remembred about Faith by which we may receive some account of the use that is made by the Holy Ghost of this word in Scripture First By faith the Gospel is often denominated in opposition to the Law and the whole of it signified thereby And the Reason of this seems to be because the Gospel is in its nature a Revelation from God proposed to our belief and all that we are required by it to do flowes naturally from what we are first obliged to believe Belief is the spring of all Gospel obedience and does in its nature comprize all other Gospel-graces they being at first produced and ever after upheld and increased thereby Secondly by the tenour of the Gospel and Gods peculiar Ordination therein the whole condition required by it is at the first virtually performed by the bare act of believing as the representative of all other Graces and root of universal obedience 'T is all that at the first is made conditionally necessary to constitute a Justified state though to the after-continuance in it the exercise of every other grace is equally requisite He that sincerly believes in Christ as he is proposed is truely in a Justified state by such an Act of Faith and herein Faith hath the preference of all other Graces in point of Justification if we never live to perform any subsequent Act of Obedience And the Reasons of this may be these two First The grace of Faith has in its nature a Nearer relation to the satisfaction of Christ wherein the Essentials of our Justification consist then any other Grace whatsoever For all we can do with reference to that and the nearest approach we can make to it to receive the benefit and advantage of it is to believe it and to rely upon it Secondly A true and sincere faith and belief of the Gospel supposeth and includeth a firm resolution to
never circumcised may now also be justified that is have their sins forgiven if they believe the Gospel and Reform their lives And that by Justifying and Imputing Righteousness is meant the pardon of sin and that Abraham was justified as an ungodly person by being Pardoned and not as an Innocent person the next words declare ver 6. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth Righteousness without works whcih was Abrahams case And how is that Why Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin The scope of the Apostle in this Chapter is to prove that Abraham was not Justified by any original Innocency or such a sinless perfection of life as would make the reward to be of Debt And so not upon the terms of the first Covenant but he was justified by having Righteousness without Works upon the terms of another Covenant He was justified as an ungodly person as a Sinner That is was Pardoned upon his sincere Faith and suit able obedience and so arrived at the Blessedness David describes who takes it for granted that Blessedness comes not by unsinning perfect obedience which is inconsistent with Pardon For then he would have said Blessed are the sinless perfect persons that never offended But he sayes Blessed are they to whom God will not impute sin and blessed are they whose sins are pardoned The plain intention of this great Apostle of the Gentiles is by the instance of Abraham to establish Evangelical Justification of which the Gentiles were as capable as the Jews in opposition to Legal By works he intends all along the Law and the first Covenant and what was required to justifie a man therein And by Faith he intends the Gospel and all that is conditionally required of us thereby which is a sincere belief accompanied with suitable obedience And Abraham who was justified by performing the Gospel condition and not the condition of the Covenant of Works had such a sincere Faith accompanied with such obedience as the Story it self and the Holy Ghost by St. James positively tells us His Works wrought with his Faith that is to obtain the same End with it and by his Works his Faith was perfected T is absurd to imagine St. Paul ever intended to exclude Gospel-works such a sincere obedience as is naturally appurtenant to Faith and is included in it and supposed by it and which is accepted out of meer Grace and cannot pretend to the least merit But he speaks only against such works as might claim Justification as a reward of Debt in opposition to Grace such as the Jews insisted on which would utterly exclude the Gentiles from all possibility of Justification and establish it upon a Legal bottom and thereby subvert the whole design of the Gospel By justifying therefore the ungodly upon believing he means no more then the justifying a person that has not sinless legal perfection which the first Covenant made necessary to Justification by his performing the condition of the second Covenant which condition performed is through Grace accepted for Righteousness and procures actual Pardon Quest 4. Has Christ satisfied for our Gospel-sins For the breach of his own Laws as Mediator or not Answ This Question is resolved by one Text of St. John who tells us that The blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth from all sin Against whatever Law committed if we perform the Gospel Condition Ever since the Fall and sin of man Christ hath been extant in Promises and Types till his full Appearance And all Pardon and Forgiveness has some way or other come through Him He has been the great medium by and through which all Divine favour and Grace has been in all times dispensed Under the Gospel whoever perform the Condition and comes within the compass of that Latitude Christ by his New Law allows his sins of partial unbelief and all other sorts of Gospel-disobedience are Pardoned upon the terms thereof by the tenor of this New Covenant which Christ hath purchased by his blood whose blood is called the blood of the Covenant By this gracious Covenant a renewed pardon is still granted to all believers for every sin at any time committed upon sincere repentance and reformation And Christ proposeth himself to the world upon those gracious terms That if they cordially close with him and receive him as Lord and Christ as their King and Saviour all their past sins shall be forgiven And whenever they shall sin for the future and come short of that Duty they are to pay to him upon their Repentance they shall be renewed and God through and by Him and for His sake will exercise continual acts of Pardon towards them in all such cases And this day of Grace is for ought we know of the same duration with every mans life Every man while he lives has an Opportunity of embracing the Gospel And whoever falls by Temptation and the power of Corruption after he has so done has yet a continued possibility while God spares him in this world to be restored to a Pardoned Justified state by Repentance But whoever fails and comes short in performing the Gospel-condition Whoever closeth not with the Redeemer who hath all power put by the father into his hands upon his own Terms not one of that mans sins will he ever Remit or Account for to the Father But is he left to answer to that most dreadful Charge of the Law and besides by neglecting so great salvation falls under the utmost condemnation of the Gospel Is left to God as supream Judge of the World in the highest exercise of Justice having refused the terms of his mercy Is left to God without the interposition of a Mediator the terrour of which condition the Apostle thus expresseth 'T is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God Where he means without a Mediator For 't is spoken in terrorem to the Converted Jews who were in great danger of Apostatizing from the Gospel and the faith of the Mediator and returning back to the old Cancelled dispensation of the Law the end of which was Christ To conclude this whole matter The making and redeeming of a man is originally founded in an eternal transaction of the blessed Trinity God saw it fit to Create man at the first with a mutable Will with an inherent freedom of choice though he perfectly knew and foresaw all the consequents and what use man would make of it The Reason of this is not to be inquired into For although God is pleased in Scripture to permit us to Treat with him about his Justice and to Discourse with us about the equity of his proceedings whether his wayes be not equal towards us and ours unequal towards Him Yet he never admits us to any conference with him about his Wisdom never suffers any humane inquiry to be made Whether he does Wisely
righteousness or unrighteousness do necessarily inhere and to which by virtue of his Constitution and Relation they are inseparably appertaining Just as light and darkness necessarily relate to Aire health and sickness to our bodyes And they are contraryes that expel each other and from a necessity in their own Natures succeed each other in their Existance in such Subjects Air perfectly free from all darkness must of necessity be supposed to be light If a body be free from all sort of sickness it must needs be supposed in perfect health So if a Man be freed wholly from all sort of unrighteousness he ought not nor cannot be otherwise judged of then as a Just and a Righteous person there being no third state imaginable in such cases Fourthly If Gods Pardon of all a mans sin should not ipso facto instate him in a Righteous condition and render him perfectly a Righteous person one of these two things would unavoidably insue Either that there must be some third state of a man that is neither Righteous nor Unrighteous which is in the nature of the thing utterly Impossible to be or else that God might fully pardon an unrighteous man that is a man after his pardon Continuing still so to be and that a man might remain unrighteous and so obnoxious to Punishment miserable and unhappy contrary to what the Psalmist so often sayes That he is blessed that has his sins forgiven after all his sins are Pardoned and he has reaped the whole benefit of Gods Forgiveness To imagine either of which were either extreamly Impious or Foolish or Both. Fifthly The Apostle tells us that All unrighteousness is sin the Scripture carryes us no farther and all sin is some way or other a breach and transgression of some Law Now where all sort of sin is Forgiven both of Omission and Commission a man is in the same state as if he had never offended and if so capable of no charge of sin and so of no charge of unrighteousness and so cannot by strict rules of Justice be otherwise adjudged and accounted of then as a Righteous person Freedom from all unrighteousness which Pardon of all sin necessarily includes does ipso facto constitute a man Righteous and denominate him from the Reason of the thing so to be And the truth is a person whose Fault is remitted and he judicially acquitted upon plenary satisfaction made is in point of true and legal Justification and being accounted Righteous thereupon upon even termes with him that is Accused and Justifyed by being found innocent Because the Rule of Righteousness and Justification is the Law and the Judgement resulting from thence Most especially when we are acquitted at the infallible Tribunal of God according to His righteous Laws The Apostles Question so pregnant Negative may very well be asked If God justify who shall either Charge or Condemn Secondly It appears by several Texts that whomsoever God pardons he reckons as Righteous and is in the Scripture-acceptation said to justify thereby In the 4th of the Rom. where the Apostle is proving that Righteousness and Justification is not by works and merit but by free forgiveness in the Gospel way of Believing he sayes in the 6. ver Even as David also describeth the blessdness of the man to whom God imputeth righteousness without works Here the Apostle gives you Davids sense in his own words and then quotes Davids words saying Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute iniquity By which it is plain past all denyal that imputing righteousness without works and free forgiveness of sin and not imputing iniquity are the same if this be but admitted that St. Paul know how to interpret the words of David In the 2d Epist to the Corinth chap. 5th the Apostle there tells us that God is in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses God upon not imputing sin is reconciled Now it upon Not imputing sin He did not account of us as Righteous 't were impossible he should be so Reconciled God cannot be reconciled to any man continuing unrighteous and under the notion of a Sinner In truth Throughout the Scripture all the characters of a righteous person of a Happy and Blessed person are still given to a Pardoned person As all misery was introduced by sin to manifest Gods extream hatred of it So all happiness is attained by the forgiveness of it to tell us of what value Gods forgiveness is and what an inestimable price it cost In the sense of the Gospel which is a Law Enacted that peculiarly provides for the Justification of an Offender a righteous person is a pardoned person to Calvin observes Cum veniam peccatorum fuerimus consecuti Justi habemur coram Deo Instit lib. 3. ch 17. And a pardoned person is a justifyed person and a justifyed person is blessed person Pardon Justification Righteousness Blessedness are inseparably Conjoyn'd The 4th of the Rom. and other Texts are a sufficient Proof of it Thirdly From a due consideration of that Order and Method God is pleased to use in the Pardoning of Sinners ' This truth will be farther manifest and appear to be immoveably sixed upon these two foundations First Every sinner is pardoned upon the soore of such a Satisfaction made as honour and satisfies the Law as much as if it had never been broken or as if being broken the utmost penalty had been inflicted Now such satisfaction is in it self vertually Righteousness and when accepted in judgement is Actually so Secondly Every sinner is in fact pardoned and not before upon the performance of such a Condition as God is pleased by the Covenant of his Grace to account for righteousness and so to accept And that is Believing and being possessed of Gospel-faith Which Faith we are often told is imputed for righteousness Whoever believes is Righteous in the Judgement of the Gospel Law for it is performing the condition required by it on our part to be performed and is our Covenant-Keeping Now whosoever is so Circumstanced in a judicial pardon obtained from the Great and Infallible Judge of all the Earth upon such a satisfaction made and such a Condition performed is certainly well intituled to a Righteous state and condition A Fourth consideration to make good the Definition I have given shall be this Gods Justifying a sinner is as has been said his giving Sentence with the guilty party Now God whose Judgement is ever according to Truth cannot give Sentence with a Guilty person upon the score of Innocency His Justification therefore of such a one consider it which way you will must needs be included in his Forgiveness of him He must of necessity be restored to a righteous condition in a way of pardon and cannot be so upon any other account That which some say That Justifying and bare and absolute Forgiving are in themselves considered two distinct things
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
is Davids blessedness of pardon Now 't were absurd to imagine that the Apostle should tell us that the Blessedness of Justification which must needs relate to the whole of it does consist in imputing righteousness without works which he makes to be all one with the pardon of sin and not imputing iniquity unless Justification were fully compriz'd therein and if it were so the form of it that it did as we say dare esse to it For nothing else can properly contain the Blessedness of it If it be meant by those that thus Object That by Pardon of sin the Scripture does not express the whole Effects that accrue by Justification That will be readily granted for our Pardon and Justification is but our Title in Law to the Grace and Glory of the Gospel is not the very things themselves though they are all virtually contain'd therein and inseparably conjoyned to it by the institution of God For Whom he justifies them he sanctifies and whom he sanctifies he glorifies And the Apostle in the 26 of the Acts conjoynes as inseparable forgiveness of sin and having an inheritance amongst them that are sanctified But if the meaning be That the whole form of a sinners Justification properly taken and as we find it spoken of in Scripture be not compriz'd in the Forgiveness of sin 't will appear to be a Mistake Those that thus Object tell us our Justification consists of two distinct parts First Remission of sin Secondly Adjudging to be Righteous Each standing upon a distinct bottom the first upon Christs passive obedience and the other upon his Active though in the Scripture we read not one Syllable of any such thing These two I have proved before are in the Scripture-method conjoyned Whoever is by God upon the belief of the Gospel for the sake of Christ judicially pardoned is thereby Justified and accounted as Righteous and the satisfaction of Christ is reckoned and imputed by God to all Believers in those effects and for those ends and purposes nor can it be rationally supposed to be otherwise imputed For no other persons Righteousness performed or Satisfaction made on my behalf can come to be any other way justly accounted mine then in the effects and advantages of it It can never be a Just Judgment to adjudge me to have Personally performed my self what was actually done by another though it was done on my behalf and be reckoned to my account There is no other possible way by which any man can come to be accounted Righteous in Judgment but either by a righteousness inherent in our selves which does constitute us innocent or by the Righteousness of Christ made ours in a way of personal imputation which must make us also to be justified as innocents and not as offenders The first is affirmed by the Papists and the later by many Learned Protestants The Overthrow of both which opinions I shall hereafter endeavour in this Discourse and thereby fully return Answer to this and all other Objections of this nature That Text Rom. 4. v. 25. is much pressed and insisted on But upon great Mistake as will easily be made to appear The words are Who was delivered for our offences and was raised again for our Justification Which words are not to be taken as if there were two distinct ends in Christs Death and Resurrection the one to obtain pardon of sin and the other to justifie And so to divide between them two whereas in truth the Apostle makes them one and the same thing But the natural meaning and intendment of the Holy Ghost in that text is this That All that Christ did and suffered was upon our account He was delivered to death upon the account of our sins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for our greatest sins and utmost Apostacy for that sense is included in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and rose again upon the same account to justify us from the condemning power of them By being delivered for our offences and rising again for our Justification the Apostle intends the same thing which is to justifie and save us from our sins And the latter expression is exegetical of the former 'T is to instruct us that Christs Death and Resurrection the whole that he transacted had one tendency and was all in order to one and the same end For in some Texts we are said to be justified by his Death and by his Blood so that he Dyed for our justification as well as rose again for it The Scripture no where affords us the least warrant to assign one distinct end to Christs death and another to his resurrection Nay the Apostle himself upon another occasion Rom. 14. ver 9. positively conjoyns them as inseparable in their ends For this end says he Christ both dyed and rose again Whatever Christ dyed for he rose again for His Rising again did not induce any farther or other ends then were his Death but only compleat and perfect the whole Design and Intendment thereof For although Christ dyed for our sins yet if he had not Risen again we could not have reap't the Fruit and Effect of his Death His own Justification as Mediator and so ours depending upon his Resurrection as the supream and Glorious Effect of his Deity and that whereby he was declared to be the Son of God mightily from heaven Secondly 'T is Objected That Remission of sin doth only take away the guilt or ordination to punishment but doth not remove the Sin it self and therefore Justification cannot consist in it Although pardon of sin do make as if sin had never been in respect of the guilt of it yet not in respect of the denomination of the Subject Although David was pardoned yet his pardon did not make him a Just man in those acts of his Murder and Adultery He was truely a Murderer and an Adulterer notwithstanding Justification doth not denominate a man to be Just and a righteousness is requisite unto it A man is not Justified and therefore Just but must be Just and therefore Justified in the order of Justification To this I Answer in these three things First by Gods forgiving of sin in a Judicial way as much is done to obliterate and extinguish it in its proper denomination as is possible and nothing but Gods forgiveness could have done so much For he forgiveth as the Supream Soveraign and Lord of all And his forgiveness is not only the effect of his mercy but the result of all his infinite Attributes He is pleased with a redundancy of Grace to express himself in Scripture to us about this matter that we might have a strong consolation therein As first That he will turn his face from our sins Psal 51. Secondly That he will remember them no more Isa 42. Thirdly That he will not impute them Psal 32. Fourthly That he will cast them into the depths of the sea Mica 7. And fifthly that he will cast them behind his back Isa 38. Now I say
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
in point of sincerity sins against his own Light and his Resolutions and Knowledge repeats this again and again does it often for such is mans apostate state by his Fall so fertile is it of all sort of sin that if Christ in this new Law had not considered our frame and remembred with infinite compassion what we are and so dealt with us we had still come short of happiness yet if such a man by the strength and efficacy of grace renew himself again by continued acts of Repentance revive and re-inforce his resolutions return back to his first stated sincerity be in his rational and most Deliberate choice still for Christ and Obedience to his Laws for Christ will not sinally judge of us by our passionate choice but by our rational choice and so carry himself upon the whole matter that Christ is not deposed his soul but still continues his Government there if Satan and the Flesh prevail but by sits and are still dispossessed by an habitual sincerity If a man be always either at the present or upon second and after reviews full of deep and heart-affecting trouble and sorrow whenever he so miscarryes and the fixed state acquiescency and rest of his soul is in living to Christ in a sincere obedience to his Laws and his rational and most undisturbed choice is to do in short if he never comes to be bowed down and subjected to pregnant hypocrisy even in all cases of this nature the Scripture gives us good ground to believe that Christ and his saving benefits are to be had Justification before God attained and future glory possessed upon such gracious principles of condescention is this New Law of the Gospel erected Though it must be withall acknowledged that sins of this nature sins tinctur'd with insincerity are of all under the Gospel the most dangerous border most upon a breach of the Condition required are the most destructive to our present Peace and Comfort the most productive of any of temporal and spiritual Judgements in this life And when they arrive to such a degree that the whole of a mans condition truly and evenly considered for we shall all be weighed in the perfect Ballance of Gods righteous judgement they turn the Scale against sincerity are the more Predominant and Prevailing part they are perfectly Ruinous a Non-performance of the Gospel-condition is returned upon us and no such man will ever have the advantages of Christs satisfaction accounted to him let him have made never so great a progress in all other Gospel attainments Two Fundamental Failures there are in reference to the Conditions required by the Gospel upon the performance of which begun and continued we come to be primarily and finally justified First When men wholly reject the Gospel or with a careless unconcern'd unactive Indifferency which comes in the effects all to one barely assent to its veracity but never prosecute the Ends of it And secondly when men prove false and perfidious in that subjection and obedience Christ requires from them in a Christian course Christ will answer for no man that will not receive him when offer'd as worthy of all acceptation and as an inestimable Jewel of an Infinite value or that does not sincerely intend to obey his Laws and act suitably to such an intention 'T were a mean and unworthy conception of our Saviour to imagine he should account the Precious Effects of his most Precious Blood to any man that would not be throughly sensible of that sin and rebellion against the Highest Soveraign that occasioned his sufferings and to expiate which he became a sin offering and was sacrificed and in the most sincere and solemn manner resolve for the future as the worst of all ills the Wound of Life the Sting of Death and tormenting Plague to Eternity to avoid it And especially that should pretend to do and yet lye against the Holy Ghost and prove false in so gracious a Covenant In a word Nothing keeps men from the good things of the Gospel the blessedness of a justified state but a positive Refusal of Christ or a sloathful careless unconcern'd neglect of him which comes in effect all to one or a prevailing unconquered falseness in the course of Gospel-obedience and that Conformity to his Laws which Christ requires from us And who can imagine that such a Saviour as our Lord is who is God and Man after a stupendious manner united should be provided by the Almighty for any persons in either respect so qualified SECT VI. FRom the consideration of all these things divers material Questions do naturally result To which a due Answer ought to be given First This Question will be asked Does not this diminish the Grace of the Gospel and lessen the free donation of Christ to say he is offer'd conditionally and that no man can be justified by him but upon terms to be perform'd by himself Answ If it appear in truth so to be that no man can be saved by Christ nor be said in the Gospel-Sense to love him that does not keep his Commands if we go further in this matter then to those Limitations the Gospel evidently puts upon it self then this Objection ought not to be made For Gods pleasure is the rule of his own Grace That the Gospel is Conditional is apparent beyond denyal If we live after the flesh we are told we shall certainly dye and if we mortifie the deeds of the body we shall live If we overcome we shall have the Crown if we do not we shall lose the Reward And If we faint we are told we shall not reap 'T is he that holds out to the End in a Christian course that shall be saved And is not this all Conditional And this Conditionality of the Gospel the offer of Christ upon terms does no way Extenuate the grace and mercy of God in the free donation of Christ We are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ though we are justified conditionally by faith and that Faith includes all Gospel-obedience and the whole duty of a Christian Our Salvation is intirely purchased by Christs blood and an ability to perform every Condition required of us is purchased for us and by him freely conferr'd upon us So that he as a gift of inestimable value and bounty from Heaven is a spring of all Grace and freely supplies us with what ever we stand in need of And the proposal of him to the world upon terms and conditions is but that method the only wise God has seen fit to make use of in the accomplishment of so glorious a work of Grace and so free a Redemption as that which tended most to his own glory and will appear at last to be eminently best for us For 't is but first to oblige us and then to inable us to be holy and like Himself in whose image lyes the perfection of all Happiness 'T is but to save us here in part and