the transaction between God and Christ concerning us without any thing done on us or in us or by us which cannot be said of the other for in it and indeed in order to the effecting it Christ lays hold on us Moreover the one I mean that which I call Vital Vnion is reciprocal or mutual in it not only we are in Christ but he is also in us Joh. 14.20 and 15.4 and 17.23 Colos 2.7 In this Union there is a mutual in-being between Christ and Believers But that other Union which I called Vnion in Law is not in like manner mutual for though we are said to be in Christ because of that publick capacity and common relation to us all that he stands in yet till the Vital Vnion between Christ and us is effected it cannot be said that he is in us And lastly these two Unions stand affected one to another as cause and effect The former namely that which I call Vnion in Law between Christ and us is the cause of the latter namely of our being brought into that Vital Vnion to him And hence the former is the rule and measure of the latter the latter is extended to all those and to those only who are comprised within the former and it is in the vertue and causal efficacy of the former that the latter is brought about and accomplished 6. Of this latter viz. Vital Vnion between Christ and us Faith is the means on our side Hence appears a further reason why it may well be called a Vital Union Both because in its effecting there is a vital touch as I may say between Christ and us and a clasping each on other and also because by and in this Union unto Christ we are brought immediately into a state of Spiritual Life first relative in Justification and Adoption and then and thereupon qualitative or transformative in Sanctification and Comfort which are Glory begun and shall be perfected hereafter Hence it is that some Divines and those no mean ones for Spiritual Light and Judgment make Faith to be actus medii ut simus in vivis rather than actus vitae quâ in vivis jam constituti vivimu the means and way of our being made Spiritually alive rather than our acting Life as being already brought into a state of Life As the Bodies closing with and clasping hold on the Soul by the animal Spirits which are corporeal things is rather the means of Natural Life than an Act of Life it self And the Notion seems to be countenanced by the Scripture which makes believing one thing and Life another and Faith the means of Life See Joh. 5.40 and 6.53 54 57. and 20.31 and Rom. 1.17 However this is plain and certain that he who hath the Son hath Life and he that hath not the Son hath not Life 1 Joh. 5.12 and that we in our believing do receive Christ Joh. 1.12 Faith being our closing with him in that conjugal Covenant and Relation in which we are and stand vitally united to him 7. It being the proper use of Faith to be the means of Vniting us thus unto Christ and its proper Nature to rest upon Christ for all and to receive all from Christ the Crown of all is hereby set upon the head of Christ and to flourish there for ever And thus you see how the grand original design of God to bring in a Revenue of singular Honour and Praise and Glory unto his Son Christ is in this way brought about accomplished and fulfilled For this Righteousness of Christ being upon us through Faith it glorifies Christ in that he is made all unto us in our acceptance with God as righteous to Eternal Life And indeed Faith is such a Grace as that there is in its Nature a singular aptitude and fitness to give Glory unto Christ This will be made apparent by considering these two things 1. Faith is a going out of our selves unto Christ for all It is a going out of our selves as Indigent miserable and perishing And to whom do we in believing go but unto Christ Faith therefore gives him the Glory of having in him a fulness of suitable sufficiency for Sinners in our guilty ruined Condition And what do we go to him for It is for all that we need Being guilty and under Condemnation we go to him for Righteousness unto Justification of Life and thence Faith is said to be in his Blood Rom. 3.25 Being utterly without strength and dead in sins we go to him for strength Isa 45.24 Being frail and mutable as Creatures and having unsteadfast treacherous hearts as Sinners we go to him for Everlasting Righteousness and for establishment in himself by an unchangeable Ordinance and constant never-failing influences that is in one word for Eternal Life Thus as the Son of God is in himself a Person of infinitely higher Excellency than the first Adam and a better Head unto all his Seed than the first Adam was So Faith acknowledgeth him to be an Head far better than Adam beyond all comparison and gives him the Glory of it accordingly 2. Faith is a prime and principal part of our being conformed to the image of the Son of God Suppose that the principle of Grace begotten and created in us in Regeneration do contain in it the habit of Faith which I will not now call in question nor determine yet this is manifest that in our acting Faith we cannot so well and congruously be said to act like God as to act like Christ For God never acted Faith but Christ did Heb. 2.13 and was so open and frequent in the profession of it that his Adversaries took notice of it Psal 22.7 8. He owned and professed that he lived by the Father as we by Faith do live by him Joh. 6.57 Though he be God by Nature and of himself yet as Mediator he lives by the Father and the Humane Nature of Christ lives and subsis Person leaning on the Eternal Deity of the Son of God it hath its subsistence in the bosom of the God head We in believing do herein imitate Christ after our manner and measure and according to that unmeasurable distance and disproportion that is between him and us We lean and live on Christ and fetch all from him and from God through him But he is the first Pattern and Original Copy of believing both because he lived a Life of Faith and because the Humane Nature of Christ leans on the Godhead in the Son and hath the Eternal Power of the Deity clasping about it and holding it in that Union After somewhat of a similitudinary way though with great dissimilitude and disparity do we by Faith lean and live upon Christ and on God in and through him the Eternal Power of the Godhead in Christ and not so much the strength of any created principle of Grace in us holding our hearts unto him and causing them for ever to liâ—e upon him USE 1. Here we may see the
his Mercy 2 Tim. 4.8 it is a Crown of Righteousness given by the Lord the righteous judge And as in our being glorified the righteousness of God is exerted and shineth forth so it is likewise in our being justified 1 Joh. 1.9 Rom. 3.25 26. and indeed throughout the whole of our Salvation he is a just God and a Saviour Isa 45.21 Hence appears the Necessity of this Suretiship-Righteousness of Christ It must be provided and brought in that God may be Just in showing Mercy and appear Righteous in extending Grace unto us and saving us with that great Salvation to which he hath appointed us For it is the unchangeable Constitution of the unchangeable God to glorifie the one Attribute as well as the other Justice as well as Grace in our Salvation Of this Suretiship-Righteousness of Christ there are two parts without either of which it would not be compleat and perfect and would not serve our turn And the reason thereof is because Christ being our Surety is thereby under an Obligation to pay our Debt and we owe a double Debt unto the Moral Law viz. a Debt of Satisfaction by suffering the penalty as transgressing guilty Creatures and a Debt of Service and Obedience to the Precept as rational Creatures constituted in the way to our Everlasting Condition Hence there are two parts of Christ's Suretiship-righteousness This is that which the Apostle saith and on which he puts so much Remark and Emphasis 1 John 5.6 This is he who came by water and by blood Jesus the Christ not in water only but in water and in blood The Language and Phrases are Levitical Conceive the meaning of them thus The first Adam came by Water in a Spotless Cleanness and Purity as to all that the Precept requir'd of him But Jesus Christ came not by Water only not only in such Purity and Cleanness as fully answered all the Demands of the Precept of the Law but he came by Blood also which neither Adam nor Angels did Jesus Christ the Son of God came in a way of satisfactory Sufferings to Expiate and make Atonement for the Sins against the Precept which we were guilty of this he did by his Blood The reason is he was made our Surety his Name was put not only into the Covenant of Works but into it as a broken Covenant 1. His subjection to and suffering of the penalty of the Law This is commonly called the Passive Obedience or Righteousness of Christ because it consists in his Suffering the penalty or curse of the Law The Scripture calls it the Blood of Christ Ephes 1.7 and the Death of Christ Rom. 5.10 under that eminent part including and intending the whole of his Sufferings And also Christ's being made Sin 2 Cor. 5.21 and being made a Curse Gal. 3.13 The ground and reason of this Suffering of Christ under the Curse of the Law is because our Guilt our Sins were upon him and thence he suffered in our stead for them Isa 53.5 6. God the Father with his own consent put upon him the Garments of us Sinners and then awaked his Sword against him even the Sword of his Revenging Justice and ran him through and poured out his Blood as if he had been a Sinner Zach. 13.7 The end of it with reference to God is the restoring to him the Honour of his Authority and Supremacy over us and of his other perfections which shine forth in the Law which we by disobeying him had robbed him of Psal 69.4 With reference to us the end and attainment of it is reconciling us to God Rom. 5.10 Thence Christ is said to reconcile us and make peace between God and us by the blood of his Cross Eph. 2.14 15 16. Colos 1.20 21. The necessity of this part of Christ's Suretiship-righteousness being brought in for us ariseth partly from the glorious Holiness and Justice of Gods Nature whence he cannot but maintain his own Supremacy and the Rational Creatures Moral dependance on and subjection to himself which being violated by Sin can no way be re by satisfaction nor satisfaction be made but by the suffering of Punishment and partly from the veracity of God in his threatning wherein he hath in Wisdom and Justice established a connexion between Sin and Death and made the latter to be the wages of the former Gen. 2.17 Deut. 27.26 Insomuch as in regard of the Sanction of the Law that of the Apostle Heb 9.22 takes place and holds true without blood there is no remission 2. His subjection to and fulfilling the precept of the Law is also a part of Christ's Suretiship-Righteousness This is commonly called Christ's active obedience and by the Apostle his Obedience Rom. 5.19 viz. Obedience not only in Suffering but Obedience to the precept of the Law as Adams Disobedience to which it is there opposed was a violation of the precept By Christ it is called his fulfilling all righteousness Matth. 3.15 and his doing the will of God Psal 40.8 Heb. 10.7 9. The reason and ground of Christs obligation to bring in this part of righteousness for us is because he is our Surety and we owe this Debt to the Law of God And there is a necessity of it because God will magnifie his Law and make it Honourable in his being well pleased in Christ with us for his righteousness sake Isa 42.21 And because it is the unchangeable constitution of God that all the saying Good and Blessing which shall be given us shall be given not only from Free Grace but by the hand of Justice and in the way of being purchased for us by a just price Thence as in the former part of Christ's Suretiship-righteousness God's vindictive justice appeared and was glorified so in this part of it his remunerative justice shines forth and is exerted For by this part of Christ's righteousness he hath obtained for us in a way of purchase or merit by paying down a just price Salvation and Eternal Life Heb. 9.14 Eph. 1.14 Under this Obedience or Conformity of Christ to the Precept of the Law I include both all the course of his Holy walking and also the habitual created inherent Holiness of his humane Nature for the precept of the Law requires Holiness both in heart and Life and therefore Christ paid both Heb. 7.26 28. Isa 53.9 1 Pet. 2.22 and 3.18 I mention this in the second place after the other part of his Suretiship-righteousness because though that was compleated and finished at his Death and his Active Obedience to the precept of the Moral Law was yielded in his Life yet the consideration of them and the Natural order of them as availing and accepted for us is that suffering under the penalty goes before Obedience to the precept because there is no room for merit or purchase till satisfaction be first made As among Men you cannot purchase of another till your Debt be paid and former Arrearages into which you have run with him be satisfied and
for our believing saith he not by way of Merit not of Debt yet in way of reward Another who speaks clearly and less covertly saith expresly that God justifies and saves none but for their believing And another who searched and saw as far as either of them and speaks out saith plainly that we are Pardon'd Justified and Adopted to Eternal Life as a reward to Believers for their Faith and Obedience And withal tells us in the same Book that Reward and Merit are Relatives so as that wherever there is Reward following there Merit went before and that there is no Reward but it is a Reward of Merit 'T is true indeed he will have the Merit of our repenting and believing but a subordinate Merit and Christ's the principal But what is this better than the old Popish Notion that Christ Merited that we might Merit and we Merit in the virtue of his Blood and by Gods Grace And indeed he expresly owns this Tenet of theirs But surely this is another Gospel that we are pardoned justified adopted and vested in the Priviledges of the New Covenant Estate as a reward of or for our believing repenting or new obedience and a Doctrine grosser than many Learned Papists hold as great Merit-mongers as they are For they insist upon it as one condition requisite unto Merit that the Person Meriting the Reward must first be in a State of Grace and Favour with God and therefore Justification and Adoption cannot be Merited by us nor are conferred upon us as a reward of any thing that we do Yea methinks it is a very pernicious and Soul-destroying Error if there be or ever have been any such in the World For if a Mans Heart be influenced by it and moulded according to it in all his treating with God and applications to him for pardon of Sin and Justification and adoption he is wholly led aside quite off from the way of the Gospel and it is utterly impossible he should ever truely believe For Faith receives and looks for Union to Christ interest in this righteousness of his pardon of Sin Justification and Adoption not as a reward for or of any thing that we do but meerly of Free Grace and wholly for the sake of Christ and his righteousness I conclude therefore that though this Word Condition may be used and is so by some in a sound sense and with a good meaning concerning Faith and its reference to the righteousness of Christ being upon us yet it is neither convenient nor safe For it may occasion an unhappy stumbling and a Soul-ruining mistake And therefore I cannot but joyn with that great Divine Dr. Tho. Goodwin on Eph. 2. Serm. 22. p. 301. who wisheth it were laid aside and wholly disused because there is danger in it or at least if men be impotently fond of the word that it were both more soundly meant and better explained than it is by our present Contenders for it 3. The generality of all those that own the righteousness of Christ being upon us as that wherein we stand justified have used to express the influence of Faith thereunto by that word Instrument So the Westminster Assembly do both in their Confession and in their Catechism Nor have I seen any thing alledged against expressing it by that word that amounts to any more but that the word is not strictly and precisely proper in the same sense wherein it is used in other cases which for my part I will easily grant But what then Ars posterior prioris utitur operâ Artes in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concrescunt We must of necessity and are warranted by the practise of the Holy Ghost to use Figures and Tropes in speaking of and declaring the Truths of God It is al 's readily granted that the word instrument is not found in Scripture used matter But yet for all that it may be a word of the Holy Ghosts Teaching for it is suited and apt to declare and let in into our Minds the true Notion and conception of what the Scripture declares to be the reference of Faith unto our Justification The Scripture saith it is by and through and of Faith yea it saith that God justifies us by Faith and through Faith I know no word that doth so well express the work and use of Faith in this matter which the Holy Ghost sets forth by receiving Joh. 1.11 12. Rom. 5.11 17. where we are said to receive Christ and to receive his Righteousness and the Atonement made thereby An expression that speaks both our having it or being possessed of it and the means or way on our part wherein it is effected or brought about viz. that it is by and in such a like acting of our Hearts towards Christ and his Righteousness as answers the work of the Hand in taking and receiving a corporeal thing offer'd to us and by our taking it made ours For my part as on the one hand I would not be needlesly tenacious of a word where we can as well retain and express the Truth without it so on the other hand I cannot but observe that all those even to a Man not one as far as I remember to be excepted who quarrel with that word instrument and wrangle to bring in the word condition in this business of our Justification and Christs Righteousness being upon us do labour under that Covert to bring in withal a very weighty and momentous alteration in the substance of the Doctrine of the Gospel For they would also bring in other things viz. Repentance and Love and new Obedience as Conditions of our Justification as well as Faith and as the Righteousness which is imputed to us and wherein we stand And they are generally for a conditional Redemption also and many of them for a conditional Election too 4. I shall therefore waving those dissatisfying words set before you what I conceive to be the Truth of God in this matter briefly in a few Propositions concerning the reference that Faith hath unto the Righteousness of Christ being upon us Onely premising two things First That I am speaking of possession or actual injoyment of this righteousness of Christ not of right or title to it Right and Possession are different things and therefore things of a different Nature and may be one without the other Rutherf of the Covenants p. 231 232. Faith hath no influence no not so much as in a way of instrumentality to confer upon us a right and title to Christs Righteousness all the influence that Faith hath in this matter is onely unto our actual Possession of it which the Holy Ghost calls our having it Phil. 3.9 and here in the Text its being upon us Secondly This Possession or having this Righteousness of Christ the reference of Faith whereunto I am speaking of is that having it which is unto Justification of Life and that as the next and immediate effect of this Righteousness being thus upon us It is having
Love this Grace of Christ should constrain you and make you thus judge That if one dyed for all then those all have dyed namely unto sin and he dyed that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him who dyed for them and rose again for their Justification and that they might rise unto newness of life 2 Cor. 5.14 15. Thus the Apostle Peter also argues pressing it upon Believers to be holy in all manner of conversation even as he who hath called you is holy And the ground upon which he inforceth it is this because they are redeemed with the precious Blood of Christ See 1 Pet. 1.14 15 16 18 19. 2. You should walk humbly also as well as holily This God doth require Mic. 6.8 for you stand accepted not in your selves nor in any Works of Righteousness that you have done but wholly in the Righteousness of Christ that is upon you through Faith Therefore when you have done all and attained to the utmost you should still be humble and say you are unprofitable servants Luke 17.10 For all your obedience and conformity to the Law avails no more to justifie you than your worst sins do and you should look on your best performances and your worst sins even with the same eye in the business of Justification Believers do own that all their best Righteousness is as to their Justification but as filthy rags Isa 64.6 and true Converts have the like and can have no worse thoughts of their worst sins Isa 30.22 Labour you should and abound in the work of the Lord not to work out a Righteousness to stand justified in before God No God forbid such a thought should ever be entertained by any Believer I do not think the Saints in Heaven would be willing to exchange and put off the Robe of Christs Righteousness to stand before God for acceptance in that perfect and spotless Holiness to which they have there attained Much less should any Believer be willing to stand and continue in a justified estate by his own imperfect defective and stained Obedience Neither indeed can I see how such a frame of Heart can be consistent with true Faith But obey you should because you have a Righteousness upon you in comparison and in competition wherewith the Righteousness of Men and Angels is to be despised Obey therefore to the utmost but look away from it when you have so done Obey not to acquire or continue to your selves an interest in this Righteousness much less to be your Righteousness before God but that you may show forth the Praises of him who hath called you into Fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ 3. You should also walk comfortably and rejoysingly as well as holily and humbly For you are made accepted in the beloved Standing in this Righteousness having it upon you through Faith you may you should rejoyse and glory not in your selves on any performances of yours or Graces inhering in you but in the Lord in whom you have both Righteousness and Strength For the Lord hath sworn that in him should all the seed of Israel be justified and glory Isa 45.23 24 25. Having by Faith received the atonement you may glory even in his presence of whom you are in Christ Jesus who is of God made unto you Wisdom Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption and you made the Righteousness of God in him that he that gloryeth should glory in the Lord. POST-SCRIPT THere are two Passages in the foregoing Sermons which have been exclaimed against publickly and privately by one that heard them not And I do believe he was angered by more than two For he is one that makes union to Christ our having this Righteousness upon us and our being justified by it to be given us in way of reward of something done by us and he is the man that makes the state of Believers to be undecided and in suspense during this Life Both which Errors are damning the former in its Nature and direct tendency the latter in its Grounds and Principles And whether he do not in truth disown the imputation of our Sins unto Christ and of his Righteousness unto us it is like if he live the VVorld will see more fully for he hath given such pregnant indications thereof as do amount to at least just cause of jealousie But touching these things he thought it best to keep silence and to fix his nails where he thought he had better advantage The one Point is pag. 7. That the Incarnation of Christ is no part of his Humiliation As to the truth of it as there laid down I shall say little more knowing it cannot be overthrown The whole stress of the matter lyes in those two words Incarnation and Humiliation how they are taken If the former be taken largely as comprising Christs taking both our Nature and the common sinless Frailties of it together with his being in the form of a servant and made under the Law I know not why it should be denyed to be a part of his Humiliation But if it be taken strictly for his dwelling in Flesh or Humane Nature comprehending under it both the act of assumption and the relation or union arising and effected thereby between the Humane Nature so assumed and the Person of the Son of God who did assume it neither the one nor the other of these neither the act of assuming nor the Union of the two Natures effected by it may be allowed to be any part of Christ's Humiliation For Humiliation is not in this argument to be taken laxly and improperly for any thing which hath Goodness or Grace in it as God's beholding things in Heaven and in Earth is said to be an humbling of himself Psal 113.6 So Christ might have been said to humble himself though he had never been Incarnate But in this subject Humiliation ought to be taken precisely for that which is proper and peculiar to the second Person in the Trinity which the Apostle calls his being in the form of a Servant or rather his being made under the Law Between which there may be conceived some difference for Christ is now in his state of Exaltation Gods Servant but he is not now under the Law as he was in the days of his Flesh and Frailty And taking these words thus it is far from being a singular conceit of mine that the Incarnation of Christ is not a part of his humiliation Mr. Bradshaw not only saith expresly Christ's assuming the Humane Nature cannot properly be said to be a part of his Humiliation but gives his reason for it of Justif ch 17. Sect. 7. and makes the Title of that Chapter to be this Christ that he might taken on him the guilt of sin was made man Whence it is evident that in his Judgment which is also the current Judgment of all Christians Christ's becoming Man was not the effect of the guilt of sin being on him but the way of his