A Medium betwixt two Extremes Wherein it is proved that the whole First Adam was condemned and the whole Second Adam justified Being a SERMON lately preached on Rom. 8.1 and now published to prevent the further Controversy in one main Point about Justification To which are added Reflections on some Passages in Mr. Clark's new Book called Scripture-Justification By BENJAMIN KEACH Rom. 5.18 Therefore as by the Offence of one Judgment came upon all Men to Condemnation even so by the Righteousness of one the free Gift came upon all Men to Justification of Life LONDON Printed for Andrew Bell at the Cross-keys and Bible in Cornhill 1698. To the Reader MY preaching upon this Subject was occasioned by what I met with from a gracious Person 's mouth who is a Member of the Church under my charge who seemed very uneasy in her Communion because in my preaching she said tho I hold forth the Doctrine of free Grace and exalt Christ yet do positively maintain that the Elect are under Wrath or in a lamentable state before calling or before they are united to Christ by the Holy Spirit or are in a State of Vnion with him which might I fear be occasioned through a mistake of that Doctrine some in this City of late so much insist on viz. Justification and Vnion with Christ before the Spirit the bond of that Vnion is received not that any of our Brethren I hope that preach that Doctrine do believe that the Elect are not under the Sentence of Condemnation and Wrath while they abide in the first Adam tho I fear they do not so carefully distinguish as they ought between our Fundamental and Virtual Justification in Christ as our Head and Representative and our actual or Personal Justification when we are united to him And finding ill use made of that Doctrine I have been perswaded to publish the first Sermon I preached upon this occasion not knowing how far this Notion might spread amongst weak and unwary hearers and having some hope this may be through the Blessing of God a prevention of it One thing I cannot but bewail i.e. that because we may differ perhaps in some respect from that Doctrine before mentioned that we must therefore be charged with Arminianism which Error we abhor and any other that tends to becloud or darken the Doctrine of free Justification by Christ alone without Works or inherent Righteousness None have reason to think that I favour in the least the Arminian or Baxterian Errors considering what I have lately published on the great Doctrine of Justification in two Sermons on Rom. 4.5 which Doctrine I have farther confirmed in those Sermons preached from the Text this is grounded upon viz. Rom. 8.1 this being only the first in which the Nature of our mystical Vnion with Christ is opened and the sweet Consolation that flows therefrom to all Believers largly applied Reader just as this Sermon was going into the Press I met with Mr. Samuel Clark's new Book intituled Scripture-Justification and have made short Remarks on some things he hath said In a time of common Invasion every Man should take to his Arms they need not wait for Orders as one notes for by this Man's Doctrine all is struck at Some think the difference between us and others who are unjustly called Antinomians consists more in Words or Terms than otherwise and I hope it is so however if I differ from them in any thing I cannot help it I have here asserted what I in my Heart do believe and I shall leave it to the Censure of all my Brethren and others with my earnest Prayers that Love Vnion Humility and Charity may be more prest after which certainly is much wanting among us and remain thine to serve thee in the Gospel according to that small measure of Light and Ability received Horsly-down in Freemans-lane 〈…〉 Benja Keach SERMON I. ROM viii 1. There is now therefore no Condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit IN this Epistle to the Romans the great Apostle of the Gentiles labours chiefly in the general to do two things First To establish the Saints to whom he wrote in the Doctrine of Justification by Christ alone Secondly To excite or stir up all justified Persons to Sanctification or Holiness of Life And That he might effectually do the first he in the three first Chapters discovers the dismal state of all both Jews and Gentiles as considered in the First Adam or the condition of every Soul by Nature and the weakness and insufficiency of the Law by reason of Man's Pravity to obtain Justification and eternal Life thereby insomuch that the Jews were in no better state than the Gentiles all being gone out of the way and the whole World become guilty before God But to revive their sinking Hopes he then displays the white Flag of Peace through the Free-Grace of God in Jesus Christ that tho the Law pronounces nothing but Wrath and Condemnation to every Soul of Man and also the remainders of Sin or the Law in our Members doth distress and sorely afflict Believers themselves yet he shews us that through Jesus Christ we have a blessed Victory over the Law of Sin and Death so that Sin cannot expose a true Believer to eternal Wrath and that the Law of God which holds all Unbelievers down under Guilt can no more oblige Believers to eternal Condemnation because Jesus Christ in our Nature hath answered all the Demands and born the Penalty thereof And from hence he brings in the Words of our Text as the profitable Use or Application of that Doctrine he had so well proved There is now therefore no Condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit In my Text you have three Parts I. A Comfortable and Consolatory Proposition There is now no Condemnation c. II. A Description of the state of the Persons to whom this Cordial of Comfort belongs viz. To them which are in Christ Jesus III. The Character of the Persons or their Qualification or Property as to the frame of their Hearts and the course of their Lives viz. They walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Or you may consider the former part of the Text thus viz. I. The Subjects spoken of Them which are in Christ Jesus II. The Predicate or Privilege asserted viz. There is now no Condemnation We will consider the Terms There is no Condemnation i.e. no Sentence of Divine Wrath no eternal Punishment 1. God pronounceth them justified and acquitted and so for ever free from Condemnation 2. The Justice of God acquits them and hath nothing to lay to their charge they being in Christ Jesus 3. The Condemnation of the Law cannot reach them it can't hurt them because they are delivered from the Curse thereof None else have any Power Who shall lay any thing to
the charge of God's Elect i.e. such of them that are called and are united to Jesus Christ for before that both Law and Justice could charge them It is God that justifieth who is he that shall condemn It is Christ that died Who can arrest impeach accuse find guilty and condemn such Object Perhaps some may say 1. The Devil may both accuse them and condemn them 2. Wicked Men may traduce and condemn them 3. And through Satan's Temptations such that are in Christ Jesus may accuse and condemn themselves Answ What of this For altho Satan wicked Men and their own Hearts may lay many things to their Charge and so pass a false Judgment upon them yet since God justifies them neither Law nor Justice can condemn them and none else can do it let all the Devils of Hell condemn them and all wicked Men on Earth nay tho many good Men should ignorantly accuse and condemn them as Job's three Friends dealt by him yet they stand justified Persons before God The Apostle doth not say there is no Sin in them which are in Christ Jesus nor any thing worthy or deserving Condemnation Nor doth he say there is no Affliction no Correction no fatherly Chastisements to them which are in Christ but there is no Condemnation 'T is one thing to be chastned and another to be condemned tho all Legal Guilt is for ever gone yet many Infirmities may attend such as are in Christ Jesus and tho God punisheth them not as an angry Judg yet he may correct them as an offended Father When we are judged we are chastned of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the World Tho God is not so severe and unjust to condemn them yet he is so wise so holy and so faithful as to correct them Now This Now refers as some think to what precedes others take it as an Adverb of Time i.e. in time past it was otherwise once they who are now in Christ Jesus were in the first Adam dead and condemned Adam and were under the Law and Children of Wrath by nature as others and so under the Sentence of Condemnation But now being transplanted into Jesus Christ or into the Second Adam they are actually freed and for ever acquitted and delivered from Condemnation as were all those also under the Law when they were in Christ which walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit These are the happy Persons and this is their Character that are in Christ Jesus Let me note here three things 1. Here is an account of their special Vocation They are in Christ Jesus 2. Here is implied their Justification There is now no Condemnation 3. Here is comprehended also their Sanctification who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Negatively They walk not after the Flesh they are not unsanctified or unholy Persons they lead not ungodly Lives they are not under the Power and Dominion of Sin nor carried away whither ever carnal Affections would lead them Affirmatively But after the Spirit they are influenced by the Holy Spirit they follow the Dictates of the Spirit tho there is Flesh in them much Corruption in them yet they walk not after the Flesh they resist Sin mortify Sin or have crucified Sin with the Affections and Lusts they walk in a holy course of Life and not as they did in times past they live according to the rule of the new Creature Note here by the way that negative Holiness is not enough we must not only forsake Sin but follow after Holiness and bring forth the Fruits of Righteousness not only cease from doing evil but learn to do well Therefore Wherefore look back to the precedent Chapters particularly to Chap. 7.25 I thank God through Jesus Christ tho I have a Body of Sin in me that makes me cry out and tho it be thus also with all Believers yet Christ hath delivered me and them from the Guilt the Power and Slavery thereof There is now therefore no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not c. And as this therefore may look backward to what precedes so it may look forward to what succeeds ver 3. But first take notice of the 2d verse For the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath delivered me from the Law of Sin and Death Brethren The Law of Sin and the Law of God are opposites now the remainders of Sin or indwelling Sin the Apostle calls in chap. 7. the Law of Sin and Death or the Law in the Members c. By the Law of Sin therefore is doubtless meant the Power and Rule of Sin God's Law is no where called the Law of Sin no God forbid The Law is holy just and good By the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ I understand the Root of all Grace in the Person of Christ which is made over to Believers by the Spirit in their mystical Union in which Sense Christ is not only made to us Wisdom and Righteousness but Sanctification also and Redemption Brethren of that fulness of Grace or of the Spirit which is in Christ we do not only all receive and Grace for Grace but the Grace and Spirit in him is ours as he is our Root or Head 'T is worthy to be noted that the Apostle brings in what he speaks in ver 2 and 3. to confirm what he speaks in ver 1. Yet I conclude what he speaks ver 2. For the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus c. refers to what he speaks in the close of the 1st verse Who walk not after the Flesh c. And that in the 3d verse refers to the former part of the 1st verse For what the Law could not do c. The Law could not justify us acquit us discharge us from Condemnation but contrariwise through our inability to keep it that condemns us and so he illustrates and confirms his Consolatory Proposition of our free Discharge and Justification by Jesus Christ in ver 1. by that in ver 3. In the 2d verse the Spirit is set forth two ways 1. By the Subject in whom it is radically i.e. in Christ Jesus 2. By the Property i.e. it is the Spirit of Life which in our Union flows to us as Sap from the Root that so all the Branches in the True Olive might be made alive and bring forth Fruit to God or lead holy Lives So much as to the Parts Scope and Explanation of the Terms of our Text. From hence I shall observe this one Proposition viz. Doct. That all those that are in Christ Jesus or have obtained actual Vnion with him are justified Persons and for ever delivered from Condemnation In speaking to this Doctrine I shall I. By way of premise lay down four Propositions II. Shew you what it is to be in Christ or open the Nature of the Soul's Union with the Lord Jesus III.
not or whilst an Unbeliever or before he believed And is it not good nay best to keep to the form of sound Words For tho it is said that God justifies the Vngodly yet they are not ungodly when justified true that excludes all previous Qualifications to Faith but not that God justifies an Unbeliever that is in his Sins in the first Adam Obj. Is it not Christ and his Righteousness that which justifies us or is the matter of our Justification Will ye make Faith to be a Cause or the condition of our Justification before God Answ No by no means tho I know some Learned Men and sound in the Faith seem to hint as if Faith was a condition of our Justification But how that which God himself gives to us by his free and absolute Promises can be a condition of the Covenant or of our Justification I see not that which is part of the Covenant on God's part can't be the Condition of it on our part Also they call Faith the instrumental cause of Justification which we must leave them to explain they mean I think but as the Hand that applies a Plaister is a cause of the Cure We must say with a late learned Author Faith is no qualifying Condition nor any procuring Cause of our Justification tho without Faith God declares no Man a justified Person 2. Faith doth not cause or render the Satisfaction of Christ any ways the more satisfactory unto God for God was as much satisfied in Christ for his Elect before Faith as after tho the Satisfaction Merits and Righteousness of Christ are not applied so as the Man is pronounced a justified Person until he is united to Christ by the Spirit and so is help'd to believe on him Faith being the Hand that receives or that apprehends Jesus Christ Brethren The Holy Spirit in our Union with Christ puts upon us the Robe of Righteousness which was not upon us before we obtained that Spiritual Union it is offered unto all but it is upon all them that believe All our Orthodox Divines agree with us that Faith neither as a Habit or Grace or as an Act much less in respect of the Fruits thereof justifies us when therefore 't is said we are justified by Faith it intends not any Moral or Physical Causality in Faith as a Qualification but only by virtue of the Object it apprehends Mr. Bradford that Holy Martyr saith Not the Action it self of believing as it is a quality in Man doth so deserve but because it taketh that Dignity and Virtue from the Object Jesus Christ We do not mean that Faith by it self and of it self doth justify us which is only as an Instrument whereby we apprehend Christ who is our Justice Faith was accounted to Abraham for Righteousness not the action by which but that which he did believe or Faith not in respect of it self apprehending but in respect of the Object apprehended Faith justifies a Sinner in the sight of God not because of those other Graces that do always accompany it or of good Works which are the Fruits thereof nor as if the Grace of Faith or any act thereof were imputed to him for Justification but only as an Instrument by which he receiveth and applieth Christ and his Righteousness For any to say otherwise is to render Faith to be part of our Reconciliation or Satisfaction to God which is to lessen the Merits of Christ and take the Crown from his Head and make Justification not to be by Grace alone or by Christ alone Faith we know is the Creatures act tho given of God or a Grace bestowed upon us by which we are helped so to do yet with the Heart Man belâ—eveth c. The Doctrine of some Men about Faith justifying the Sinner tends to bring in a new Covenant of Works i.e. a mild Law of Faith and sincere Obedience in the stead of the severe Law of perfect Obedience and plainly renders the Satisfaction and Righteousness of Christ defective or insufficient as if Faith was part of our justifying Righteousness or as if we were not fully reconciled to God by the death of his Son but that he was only reconcileable and that it is Faith and sincere Obedience indeed which compleats that Reconciliation Brethren Faith I say again is said to justify us only in respect of the Object Jesus Christ whom it apprehended and it is no part of the matter which doth justify us the Righteousness of Christ being alone the material cause of our Justification nor doth Faith add any thing to Christ's Satisfaction or to his Righteousness which alone is imputed to us to our Justification before God Tho we say that Righteousness is not imputed to the actual and personal Justification of any Man till he has actual Union with Christ yet I deny that Faith in order of Nature is before Union or at least before the reception of the Spirit in order to Union tho not as to time for Christ takes hold of us before we can take hold of him also Faith is a Fruit of the Spirit and sure the Seed must be sown before there can be Fruit. We are passive in Regeneration but not in the act of Faith But when a poor Sinner receives the Spirit then it is that he in his own Person is declared and pronounced righteous he being in Christ is pardoned and actually acquitted and discharged from that Legal Guilt or from that Obligation he lay under to Condemnation in the first Adam the Sentence being then taken off and he loosed from those Fetters and Chains by which he was before bound and this therefore is more no doubt than simply justified in his own Conscience For tho Christ as our Surety when he rose from the dead received a full discharge for us yet until we are united by the Spirit unto him by which Faith is wrought in our Souls and our Eyes are inlightned we have not this great Blessing made over to us Mind that Passage of the Apostle again By whom now we have received the Atonement Now the Case is altered now we are in Christ Jesus Brethren we have not the Portion until we have the Person now the Law 's Sentence and Condemnation can no more reach us now that Husband is dead that cruel Husband and we are married unto another now we are actually acquitted or not till now personally justified Some add justified Foro Dei or in God's sight but so expressing it I fear hath clouded the matter because known to God before him or in his sight were all his Works from everlasting Justified before God may be taken two ways 1. In distinction from that before Men or in a Man 's own Conscience if they mean that I grant it 2. In respect had to that sight he hath of things who calls things and seeth things that are not as if they were As Abraham is called the Father of many