union of the Soul with Christ by Faith and so its actual right hereupon through Christ to Pardon and Life and this â—aith as it is the matter of right is the Souls personal justifying Righteousness and the Gospels afferting such a Soul i. e. a Believer to have this right is God's mediate justifying act Consider still John 3. 16. For God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life See then upon the matter if it be not of Faith that it might be by Grace and pretend not to exclude Faith for fear you should exclude Grace but fear to exclude Faith seeing that if you do you most certainly exclude Grace for the more of the Obedience of Faith and the more is the creature depressed and God in Christ exalted Rom. 4. 20. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in faith giving glory to God 7. A Seventh Text they would have speak for them is Rom. 5. 19. For as by one Man's disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous If they mean by what this Scripture saith that God did account Adam's act of his disobedience in violating the Laws to be ours so he accounts Christ's obedience in fulfilling the Law to be ours in it self and that we fullfiled the Law in him I Answer God did not account Adam's act in eating the forbidden Fruit so to be ours as though we had eaten our selves for God knows we neither took received nor did eat of the Fruit in our own Persons our Persons then having no Existence or actual Being And God is true and will not account that to be done by us which he knows we did not Indeed we partake of the sad Fruits of that disobedience having derived from Adam originally by natural Generation a nature sadly corrupted and violated and so are guilty before God and are accounted both by him and his Law really to be so And so God doth not account the Obedience of Christ in his fulfâ—ing the Law to be ours as though we had performed it in our own Persons for he knows and we may know our selves we did not But this God doth for and upon the account of Christ's sinless perfect meritorious righteousness constitute us righteous by his Gospel Law upon true Faith and accounts us as we are Believers for Christ to have an actual right to Pardon and Life 8. Another Text is Rom. 8. 4. That the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit I take the meaning of this Text to be this i. e. Christ Jesus having answered the ends of the violated Law by his perfect Obedience and Suffering hath obtained hereby that a Christian's sincere Obedience which consists in conformity to the Law of Grace shall be accepted for Christ's sake as really by God as though he had fulfilled or perfectly obeyed the Law of Innocency in his own Person which now as a fallen Creature he is incapable of doing The ground of this my apprehension are the words that follow who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Now though every true Christian as to the bent of his Heart and Life doth walk after the Spirit and not according to the Flesh or corrupt Nature yet it cannot be that by this the Law of Innocency is fulfilled in him seeing that it must be a sinless conformity that must be a fulfilling of that Law now mark the Text speaks of a personal fulfilling and this by a walking according to the Spirit therefore this Law which is fulfilled in them or by them must be the Law of Grace and not the Law of Innocency And let not Man say still that God accounts that a true Believer doth fulfil the Law of Innocency in Christ for if so that Law must justifie and the Covenant of Grace be made void Christ fulfilled that Law for us but we did not fulfill it in our own Persons in his fulfilling of it 9. The Ninth Text is in Psalm 71. 16. I will make mention of thy righteousness even of thine only What is there in this Text to prove that God accounts the righteousness of Christ to be the formal personal righteousness of every Believer Plain it is the Text speaks of God's righteousness in keeping and fulfilling his gracious Promises which righteousness is no other but his truth and faithfulness But suppose we this Scripture to speak of the righteousness of Christ as Men would have it what will it still be to their purpose all that they can gather from it upon any likely ground upon this supposition is only that David would make mention of Christ's righteousness as the merit of all the good which he both had and did expect and the ground of his acceptance which is a great truth in it self but I do not say it is that which by the Holy Spirit is intended chiefly in the Text. 10. Another Text is in Ezech. 16. 14. And thy renown went forth among the Heathen for thy beauty for it was perfect through my comliness which I had put upon thee saith the Lord God This comliness say they which God put upon this People and from whence they had their beauty was the righteousness of Christ imputed in it self Now if the People would but a little consider what follows they might see this comliness God put upon them spoken of here was a civil comliness i. e. the Peace Plenty fulnses of all temporal good things the Honour Greatness Dignity c. that God had advanced them unto especially in David's and Solomon's times above their Neighbours But come on if so be they will have the righteousness of Christ meant then belike it must follow 1. Believers how mean or contemptible soever they be in this World must be renowned and very famous among the very Heathen for Christ's imputed righteousness And yet alas the poor Heathen are meer strangers to it knowing nothing of it and here is the wonder indeed 2. Believers they may trust too much to Christ's righteousness now I ever thought these Men that are for this strict Imputation had been of a mind that a Person could not trust too much to Christ's righteousness but its like Persons may if by this comliness be meant Christ's righteousness as they will see ver 15. But thou didst trust in thine own beauty and playedst the harlot because of thy renown and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by his it was 3. Persons valuing Christ's righteousness too much and trusting too much unto it may thereby be drawn to commit Spiritual Whoredom to break their Covenant with God and become Apostates from God by falling into Idolatry c. If they will have the righteousness of Christ meant by this comliness and the beauty that was upon this People then they must have these
as they are Men and if so then they must prove the Person is justified but not the Man or the Person is formally righteous with Christ's righteousness but not the Man how this will be performed if the proof of it be undertaken I cannot tell But before I pass this I further urge if Christ's righteousness be the righteousness of our Nature which it must be if it be our formal personal righteousness then it must be a quality inhering and if it be a quality inhering then we are made the Subjects and so we must have that which is proper unto and inseparable from such a Subject i. e. Christ removed and existing seperate from its own proper Subject in this and the other Believer which cannot be the Subjects thereof no more than Christ's Body can be the Subject of the accidents of Bread and Wine in the Lord's Supper Alas alas that Men should be accounting the Popish Transubstantiation such a Monster and yet cannot nor will not see what they themselves are forming And upon the matter I would desire it might be considered whether there be any such thing as a personal justifying righteousness the matter of which is not inherent But it may be further objected if Faith be our formal personal justifying righteousness is not the difference betwixt Justification and Sanctification hereby taken away and so these two great priviledge which in Scripture are spoken of as really distinct confounded and jumbled into one By what hath been said above the Objectors if they will but consider are strangely intanged in the briers of this Objection themselves asserting Christ's righteousness to be their formal personal righteousness and so the righteousness of their Natures and so make the sanctifying Grace of the Spirit of no use But however for Answer to the Objection I shall I hope make it appear that although I affirm that Faith is our personal justifying Gospel Righteousness and also own it to be a sanctifying Grace that Justification and Sanctification are yet distinct and by this Doctrine not conâ—ounded but still keep the difference assigned unto them by God in his Word Faith then as sanctifying is that which purifies the Heart Acts 15 9. it is a renewing by the Spirit of the moral Image of God consisting in Knowledge Righteousness and Holiness Coloss 3. 10. Ephes 4. 24. so that the Soul which was only carnally disposed and inclined before is having Spiritual Illumination disposed and inclined principally to embrace Spiritual Objects and here we consider Faith absolutely as a change of the Nature Faith as justifying gives a right to Christ and for his Merits sake to Pardon and Life by virtue of God's gracious appointment in his Covenant of Grace in his Imputation of it to give this right and here I consider Faith relatively as a change of the state i. e. the Sinner that before was a Child of Wrath and an Heir of Hell upon a sincere Faith hath that relation changed and is accounted by God for Christ's Righteousness his Child by Adoption and an Heir of Heaven and Eternal Life John 1. 12. Galat. 3. 26. Faith as sanctifying relates to Christ as Physitian healing by his Spirit of Grace the sinful distempered Soul Faith as justifying relates to Christ as Rector and Judge who by his Law of Grace hereuâ—â—â— doth declare that Soul who was as a Criminal was condemned in Law before now to be pardoned and to have right to everlasting Life There is as much difference betwixt Faith as it Sanctifies and as it Justifies as betwixt an healing Medicine and a Title and Right in Law to Pardon and an Inheritance So that as the same Person may have divers Offices and may be distinguished according to his Offices so is the same Faith distinguished as sanctifying and justifying The same Man may be both a Physitian and a Judge Now will any Man that is right in his Head say that the administring of Physick and the dispensing and executing of Law are both one because both performed by the same Person Those who accuse me and others of confounding Justification and Sanctification when we say that Faith is our personal justifying Righteousness according to God's gracious Constitution or Law they themselves say that Faith doth not only Sanctifie but that it is the Instrument of Justification Now give me leave upon the Point to ask these Men whether they themselves do not make a difference betwixt Faith as it Sanctifies and as it is an Instrument of Justification if they say yea they do do not they then themselves according to their own notion distinguish of the same Faith as sanctifying and as justifying in their Sense and seeing they will not call this a confounding of Justification and Sanctification What reason have they to call our Notion so when we consider Faith as absolute in Sanctification and relative in Justification as hath been cleared If this be so then it may be said Sanctification must be before Justification I Answer They that make the Objection say this as much as we in case they will have Faith to be the Instrument of Justification for surely Faith must be had before it can be an Instrument unless they can prove a Man may use Hands that hath none But however since this is cast in our way we shall a little essay to cleaâ—â— If we take Sanctification then for the very first Seeds of Grace which in their own Nature have a virtue to dispose and incline the Soul to a thankful acceptance of Christ so that the real consent of the Will is gained thus Sanctification is before Justification But if we take it for a more fixed and rooted habit of Grace so it is after Justification The Heart must be first disposed and inclined to open to Christ that so he may have it for his habitation before it will actually open Hence so soon as ever the Soul upon this disposition doth give its consent to accept of the Lord Jesus to be its only Propitiation Head and Teacher the Sinner hath interest in him and by virtue of the Gospel promise hath an actual right unto the blessed benefits of Pardon and Life purchased by him 'T is said of Lydia the Lord opened her Heart and so Revel 3. 20. But it may be said are not the first Seeds of Grace saving I Answer The Seeds of Grace considered as such they have an healing or saving virtue in their own Nature but they are not actually healing or saving to me until they prevail against the corrupt sinful disposition and inclination of my Will I know in what Soul so ever God Sows the Seeds of true Grace those Seeds shall prove healing and saving through Christ they shall prevail against the sinful corrupt disposition of the Will 1 Peter 1. 23. but they are not thus healing and saving to any Soul until they do so Such a Medicine appointed for the recovering of Health it hath an healing quality but though it be taken 't
Psalmist determine Psalm 45. 13 14. The King's daughter is all glorious within her cloathing is of wrought gold She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of Needle-work the Virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee And so the Apostle Paul Ephes 5. 25 26 27. Husbands love your Wives even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it That he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word That he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing 5. A Fifth Text is in Rom. 3. 22. Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference This Righteousness of God say they is the Righteousness of Christ imputed and accounted to be a Believer's formal personal Righteousness but that by the Righteousness of God in this Scripture and others cannot be meant the Righteousness of Christ is manifest 1. Because this righteousness which is called the righteousness of God is opposed unto the righteousness of the Law and is said ver 21. to be without the Law But the righteousness of Christ is not opposed to the righteousness of the Law he being conformed unto the Law both in habit and act 2. By the righteousness of God cannot be meant God's righteousness it self I hope they will grant and if not then from it they cannot gather that the righteousness of Christ in it self is imputed seeing it is a divine as well as an humane righteousness unless they will say it is the humane righteousness of Christ only which is imputed in it self and if so it could nothing avail them for though it be true the humane righteousness of Christ would have availed himself as the Law of Innocency justified him thereupon as a righteous Man Yet it would have availed us nothing at all without the conjunction of his divine righteousness seeing without this it would not have been for others satisfactory and meritorious therefore I conclude that Faith in Jesus Christ is the righteousness which is here called the righteousness of God and that because God by the Gospel hath constituted and appointed this to be that which he will accept instead of legal perfect righteousness and for the sake of Christ's satisfactory and meritorious righteousness will justifie us by his Law of Grace and thereby give right to Pardon and Life What hath been said to this Text may be sufficient to give light to understand the meaning of that Text so much urged Phil. 3. 9. And be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith And so Rom. 1. 17. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written The just shall live by faith Rom. 10. 3. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God 2 Cor. 5. 21. For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him 6. The sixth Text is Rom. 4. 6. Even as David also describeth the blessâ—dness of the Man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works This righteousness say they which God in this Text is said to impute can be no other but the righteousness of Christ There hath been enough said to shew it cannot be righteousness of Christ in it self which is imputed I would gladly have Men to consider what the Apostle in this his dispute undertakes to prove can any thing be more clear than that it is Justification by Faith in opposition unto the works of the Law both of Innocency and Moses But here is the grand mistake of these Men when the Apostle is only excluding works with relation to the Law of Innocency or the Law of Moses from Justification they understand him universally as excluding also Gospel works such as Faith c. which yet nothing can be more express and plain the Apostle is pleading for Justification by Verse 9. For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness And this Apostle at the fifth ver of this Chapter affirms that faith is accounted for righteousness And if so which is express then faith must be the righteousness of which the fifth Verse speaks Well but say they it is not faith that is this righteousness but the object Christ's righteousness if they mean it is not faith abstracted or seperate from its object that is this righteousness I say the same for it is no true faith which hath not Christ for its object But if they mean that it is the object it self that justifies and not faith with relation unto the object here I must leave them and that because I must believe the Apostle before them and there is nothing in all the Scripture more manifest than that though there be neither conformity to the Law of Innocency nor the Law of Moses though a Man neither can nor shall be accounted by God righteous in the sense of these Laws yet where there is a consormity to the Gospel Law we have David's testimony saith the Apostle that Man shall be blessed and this his conformity shall be by God accounted for righteousness And what wonderful grace is it that God will accept for the sake of Christ the sincere obedience of faith instead of a sinless perfect obedience But say these Men if you are justified by faith you are justified by works and so exclude the grace of God The Apostle saith the contrary Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace Verse 16. But this I suppose they cannot or will not understand but think that if it be by faith it must be by a work exclusive of grace They consider not that faith is the free gift of God through Christ and that it is by grace that God saves through faith Ephes 2. 8. For by grace ye are saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God A Soul being by the Holy Spirit convinced of its own sinful and lost condition and its own inability and insufficiency to save it self out of this condition by the light of the Gospel it hath a discovery there is a sufficiency of Satisfaction Merit Power and Spirit in Christ for its Pardon and Life beside a free offer herein of this grace unto it immediately as it is really burdened with Sin and under the fears of eternal perishing and so truly willing of Christ and his Grace above all the World upon which the Soul penitentially renouncing the World the Flesh and the Devil gives its actual consent to accept of Christ for its Propitiation Head and Teacher and so to be subject to God in him by the Holy Spirit Here now is the
right to this Pardon and Life without Faith previous thereunto in order of nature and whoever they are that will deny this they must deny the plainest part of Scripture But it may be said do not you affirm that the performance of the condition is required of us I Answer true and the Scripture is express we are injoined to repent believe and obey and not Christ for us doth not this suppose us then it may be said to have a moral power in our selves to repent believe and obey antecedent to the disposing and assisting grace of the Spirit I Answer no God indeed by his command makes it our duty to repent believe and obey his infinite wisdom having ordered this as the best way or means to our having Pardon and Life through Christ and therefore for this purpose will have the commands of the Gospel pressed upon Sinners But then his promise of the gift of this grace through and for Christ to enable us hereunto supposeth our want of moral power and so our insufficiency and inability in our selves to perform which the Spirit convinceth of so that God's commanding us that which we have not in or from our selves to perform without the renewing and assisting grace of his Spirit doth not suppose us to have the moral power of our selves but it only speaks God's order of acting in his dispensations towards Man whom he works upon as a rational Creature who after he is convinced of his Sin and Misery must be acquainted with what is his duty in this case and for this God gives his command as in the case of those at Peter's Sermon and the Jaylor c. But then after acquaintance with his duty and conviction of his own inability to perform God by his promise conveys the grace of his Holy Spirit to give him that ability so that now Man repenting and giving his sincere consent to be obedient to God in Christ the blessings of Pardon and Life according to the tenor of the Covenant of grace devolve upon him for Christ as the subject of the right i. e. as a penitent Believer So that in what I have said it is manifest the terms and conditions of the Covenant performed by Man through assisting grace are no other but terms and conditions of connection and order as hath been explained And here observe this is so far from destroying as that it doth establish the Doctrine of Justification by Faith or that Doctrine which teacheth Faith to be our formal personal Righteousness or that upon which God doth account us by the Covenant of grace subjects that have right through Christ to Pardon and Life seeing that God hath so connected true Faith and these saving benefits as that it is his fixed order by this his Covenant to dispense the latter to such and such only I speak of the Adult as are qualified with the former And if so then such must have a legal right i. e. a right in Law and what is a right in Law but a Righteousness in the sense of that Law and seeing we cannot have a right in the account of the Law of Innocency we cannot have a Righteousness in the account of that Law And if not then we must have another Law and this can be no other if a Remedy as we are fallen Creatures be but a Law of Grace and Mercy and if this must not be then we must have no legal right at all and if no legal right then no Justification there must be no such thing and if there be no such thing then let Persons contend no more about it And though it be true these conditions which are conditions of connection and order have not the Causality of the Efficient or meritorious cause yet they have the place of the matter disposing and qualifying together with the form which is God's accounting them as qualifying matter they constitute the Sinner a Subject that hath right according to the tenor of the Gospel to Pardon and Life through and for Christ and this is the nature of Justification But though this Man in his 24th Question hath granted Faith to be a condition of connection and order which is all that I intend as I have explained my self when I speak of the condition of the Covenant and so granted hereby a Covenant of grace made betwixt God and believers as I have shewn yet his 14th 15th 16th 17th 18th and 19th Questions they all respect the same thing i. e. his denial of the conditionality of the Covenant so consistent is this Man with himself but if he had not granted what he hath yet what I have said upon the former Question i. e. his 13th may be a sufficient solution to these I have mentioned and therefore I shall not take up time nor fill up Paper nor trouble the Reader with them only seeing I have answered him so many Questions I will request the same favour from him that he will answer me these few upon the matter 1. Whether he do Baptize as he calls it Persons Adult considered as so and so qualified or hath he no regard to any qualification but administers the Oâ—dinance to any that offer themselves suppose they be Turks 2. Whether there be any such a thing as any Persons being in Covenant with God If there be thenâ— 3. Whether are they taken into Covenant as Infidels or as Believers If there be not then 4. What is that which Baptism is a sign and Seal of And 5. Who have right to this Seal and that whereof it is a Seal It is only these few I shall propound I desire weight let him glory in number Q. 20. I pass on to his 29th Question If there be no right to Justification and life but by Faith how then or by what are dying Infants saved or by virtue of what Covenant have Infants right to Baptism I Answer By the Covenant of Grace upon the Faith of their Parents He needed not but it is like he would have had the number to have sought the solution of such a Question as this seeing I have at large before answered it in a Manuscript sent to one of his fellow Labourers which it is strange if he have not seen but however to this I remit him and pass on to his Q. 21. Doth not such an one naming me herein render the Doctrine of the most of those accounted Orthodox both Ancient and Modern to be false the prayers of the most sincere impertinent made in Sin and Ignorance and the sufferings of the Martyrs to be foolishness The greatest part of this I have answered already in what I have said to the 22d Article of his Faith only as to that wherein he chargeth me as one that renders the Prayers of the most sincere impertinent made in Sin and Ignorance My Answer is I do most firmly hold that a sincere Prayer though much Sin and Ignorance do and will remain in the Person who put up such a Prayer so long
be saved and thine House Therefore the Reason given is of no force for the strict Imputation of Christ's righteousness 7. Christ's righteousness say they must be our only personal justifying righteousness because it is that which God accepts on our behalf I Answer If they mean that God accepts the righteousness of Christ on the behalf of Believers so as to account it a sufficient satisfaction for them and the merit of all good which they partake of and that for which he accepts all their sincere duties I grant them the whole But if they mean God so accepts it on their behalf as to account it to be the very righteousness of their Persons by which their Persons are righteous according to the Law of Innocency this I deny and they can never shew any solid proof for what they affirm 8. Christ's righteousness say they must be our only personal justifying righteousness because Christ was a publick Person standing in the place and stead of all those that should believe in him so that all that he did and suffered are to be looked upon and are reputed by God as done and suffered by them and consequently are imputed to them I Answer That Christ did sustain the Person of a Mediatour for the making atonement and purchasing reconciliation I grant but that he sustained the Person of all those as a sinner that should after believe in him this I deny seeing then he should have been accounted the offending party and so as such had been incapable of purchasing and making peace betwixt the offending and offended For he that is accounted guilty and so an offender should have needed a Mediatour and reconciler for himself but this Christ did not therefore to tell of Christ's being a publick Person in this Sense is false and not only so but destructive of his Office as Mediatour and so also of his Satisfaction and Merit as is manifest And whereas it may be said How could he have suffered if by the Law he was not accounted guilty and an offender I Answer The Law did not account Christ as guilty or an offender nor did it ever condemn him but on the contrary it accounted him a righteous Person not considering him at all as a Mediatour or Surety and justified him as a fulfiller of it both in Nature and Life and therefore he was under no obligation at all by the Law of Innocency to Suffer but the obligation was from the Law of Redemption or Mediation by his own free and voluntary susception according to the paction betwixt him and the Father The just suffered for the unjust that he might bring us to God If just then by what Law was he just He that is just in Law by that Law that accounts him just as such he cannot be accounted guilty or an offender but Christ was just in the account of the Law of Innocency Hence therefore that which they would gather from Christ's being a publick Person must fall with its foundation for neither the Law nor God by the Law did account that Christ did so personate Sinners as to reckon what he did and suffered they did and suffered What Christ did and suffered it was accounted to be done and suffered for us but not accounted to be done and suffered by us for if so then God should accept satisfaction immediately from us and not from Christ and God must account us immediately to have merited and not Christ i. e. Christ should only be accounted by God as the means whereby we satisfied his Justice and merited Life for our selves for if all that Christ did and suffered be by God reputed as done and suffered by us then I ask for what end for that which was done and suffered by Christ was satisfactory and meritorious now if Christ obeyed and suffered for this end that God might account what he did and suffered to be done and suffered by us then Christ must have obeyed and suffered for this end that God might have satisfaction from us and that we by his means might merit a right to Life Can they prove this thinkest thou Reader 9. Christ's righteousness say they must be our only personal justifying righteousness because we cannot be justified by it any other way than by God's imputing it to us as such I Answer If this be so there must be no Justification of a Sinner at all for no Sinner is nor can be formally personally righteous with Christ's righteousness and therefore God doth not account him to be so as hath been proved above 10. If we may truly be said to be dead and crucified with Christ to be quickned with Christ to have risen again with Christ to sit in heavenly places in or with Christ c. then may we be said to have fulfilled the Law with Christ also and consequently the fulfilling of the Law by Christ is imputed to us and accounted ours I Answer The Scripture it is granted saith concerning true Believers that they are dead and crucified with Christ c. But what are they said to be so properly and personally Did they lay down their natural lives with Christ and aâ—ise in his rising again unto a corporal and glorified Life Or did God account them so to have done in Christ when he knows they did not If not as is plain then the meaning is by way of efficacy and likeness Christ indeed hath merited the Holy Spirit and this Spirit is given for the sake of his Merits unto his People by the power and efficacy of which Spirit sin is mortified the Heart crucified to the World and the Soul made alive to God raised from a Death in Sin to a Life of Grace and Holiness and the affections are set upon things above where Christ sits at the right hand of God from whence results a Christian assimulation or likeness to Christ in his Death Crucifixion Resurrection Ascention and Exaltation But what ground from hence to draw such an inference i. e. that we have fulfilled the Law in Christ's fulfilling of it Plain it is no ground at all but the consequence leans to that false supposition that what Christ did and suffered God accounted us to have done and suffered which beside what hath been said already if true then God must account us if Believers to have been born of a Virgin in a Stable to have been circumcised to have disputed with the Doctors in the Temple at Twelve years of Age and to have been subject to Joseph and Mary as our Parents to have been baptized by John the Baptist to have wrought Miracles c. in Christ But who will say this if none then all must hold the thing supposed formerly by many must be false and if they will let the notion go the consequences are none of theirs 11. Christ's righteousness say they must be our only justifying righteousness because all are and continue Sinners while they live and therefore cannot be personally righteous but by God's accounting Christ's righteousness
e. Justification is God's asserting and maintaining act by his Law of Grace of our right to Pardon and Life for the sake of Christ upon our believing 1. It is an act and that ad extra an act which makes a relative change and the subject upon whom this relative change is made is Man a guilty and condemned Sinner one upon whom the sentence of condemnation is passed by the Law and he under obligation thereby to suffer eternal punishment this is Man's condition antecedent to God's act of justifying Rom. 3. 19. Now we know that what things soever the Law saith it saith to them who are under the Law that every mouth may be stopped and all the World may become guilty before God Galat. 3. 22. But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin that the promise by Faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe John 3. 18. He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God Ephes 2. 3. Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature the Children of wrath even as others 2. In this act of justifying there is the term from which or the state from which Man a Sinner is brought upon his Justification and that is from an obligation to punishment and the omission or loss of right to Life and Happiness Every poor Soul before Faith is under an obligation to Eternal Punishment and must lose Heaven and Eternal Happiness if he leave the World in this condition How much then should it be our concern to see that we have true Faith that we have thankfully accepted of and are sincerely subject unto Christ that so we may have through him a right to Pardon and Life John 5. 24. Verily verily I say unto you He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death unto life Rom. 8. 1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after Spirit 3. In justifying there is the term to which or the state a poor Sinner is brought into and that is a right to this Pardon and Life spoken of before No sooner is a Sinner justified but Pardon and Life are his they are by Gospel or Covenant right his John 3. 16. For God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life and Verse 36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him 4. There is the agent or he that justifies and that is God we are before Repentance and Faith guilty and condemned and until God do justifie us we remain in that guilty and condemned state therefore if ever we have a right to Pardon and Life God gives it Rom. 3. 26. To declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus Rom 4. 5. But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness Rom. 8. 30. 33. Moreover whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect it is God that justifieth 1. Hence learn first how much we should adore and admire the riches of mercy in Christ that after we had greatly offended him and exposed our selves to his wrath and displeasure everlastingly having involved our selves in a state of guilt and condemnation having forfeited all right to Life I say that after this all this yet he should be willing to become our justifier the forgiver of our Sins and the Donor of a right to Happiness and this upon honourable terms with relation to himself and reasonable with respect to us How much doth this call for our Admiration and Adoration certainly it will be the work of Heaven 2. How great folly are poor impenitent Sinners guilty of for though God be willing to justifie ready to pardon and receive into his favour and make over unto them a sure title to Erernal Life if they will but now humbly come in upon his call and thankfully accept his Son to be their Propitiation Head and Teacher and be subject to him in Christ yet they refuse they hold fast deceit and will not return they set no value upon this great good offered they prefer their Soul damning Lusts and the Profits and Pleasures of a vain transitory World they content themselves to live unforgiven at enmity to God Heirs of Hell destitute of right to Life and Salvation O what folly How much is the condition of such to be lamented who chuse death before Life guilt before Pardon execution in Hell before the fruition of a glorious rest in Heaven God calls them to incline their ear and come unto him hear and their Souls shall live and he will make an everlasting Covenant with them even the sure mercies of David Isa 55. 3. he assures them by his promise that if they will forsake their wicked ways and sinful thoughts he will have mercy and abundantly pardon Verse 7 but alas all this moves them not they are still as unconcerned as before 3. That Justification is not from Eternity For any to affirm this is to affirm a contradiction i. e. that we were both guilty condemned and justified from Eternity for who now are justified but such as before were guilty and condemned so that first God condemns us from Eternity as guilty and then justifies us from Eternity according to these Men touching what they alledge i. e. God's purpose and decree they may as groundedly gather from it that Persons are effectually called from Eternity conformed to the Image of Christ and glorified from Eternity 5. In the description I say it is God's act by his Law of Grace it is not by an immediate but a mediate act that God justifies seeing it is God's act by this his Law and that it is will appear further if we consider that we can neither be justified by the Law of innocent Nature nor by the Law of Moses And if not then by some other Law for as condemnation is by Law so Justification As disobedience then to the Law of Grace brings upon us condemnation so obedience to the same Law gives right to Pardon and Life which is Justification If so be that Sinners remain impenitent unbelieving Rebels against Christ by this Law they are condemned but on the contrary if they through Grace become Penitent Obedient Believers then this Law intitles
and if they be whether can any one I speak of the Adult have Salvation by Christ who denies these and refuse to give their assent unto them If they cannot how can they be justified without such an assent Being thus it may be said you will have many assenting acts of Faith unto Justification or in that Faith which justifies I Answer implicit I will grant explicit I deny As thus Suppose I propound the above-mentioned Articles to any in order to his assent as I read these Articles if he give credence he implicitely gives his assent to each Article as I go along But then after that I have read them I ask him whether he doth assent to the truth of the whole if he say yea 't is manifest his explicit assent is but one or one explicit act which we call assent But besides assent our consent is requisite to the constituting of true Faith and this consists best in a cordial accepting this one only God to be our God giving him the preheminence in our affections Exod. 20. 2 3. An accepting of him to be our chief or best good that God who is essentially good the fountain of all goodness Hence he is the principal object of our love desire and delight Psalm 73. 25. Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon earth I desire besides thee And besides it implies a free consent to be disposed of by him according to his good pleasure and a being freely willing to be ruled and governed by him according to his Law and holy Commands 2. A consent to take Christ Jesus to be our only Propitiation all prevailing Intercessour and also as our head and Teacher i. e. Christ in all his Offices 3. An accepting of the Holy Spirit to be our Sanctifier to mortifie Sin to bring our hearts in love with holiness to assist us in duty and excite grace in the performance to alienate our Hearts from this World and fix them upon Heaven and heavenly things 4. A sincere consent to perform our Baptismal Vow or Covenant renouncing the World the Flesh and the Devil resolving through God's grace for the future to be his obedient Children and faithful Servants fighting against all his and our spiritual Enemies Those who are our Opposites I would gladly know of them or rather I desire them to know of themselves whether any less than such a sincere consent as this above spoken of can bring or put them into a saving justified state or give them which is all one a saving interest in Christ and a right to Pardon and Life through him If they say less will let it be made appear from Scripture if not then why do they make any opposition upon this consent sincerely given follows practical trust i. e. a well grounded confidence upon God in and through the Lord Jesus by the Holy Spirit that God for the sake of Christ will be faithful to his promises and make them good unto such who reduce their former consent into persevering practice such who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality Eternal Life Rom. 2. 7. Though many times under dark and afflicting providences and dispensations Thus Abraham against hope believed in hope he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in Faith giving glory to God And being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform upon our first assent and consent we have an initial right to Christ and Life upon our practical trust we have this right continued which practical trust doth include sincere Obedience and when a Believer is incapacitated for the act and exercise the principle or habit is accepted The heart of Asa was perfect all his days 2 Chron. 15. 17. This practical trust is our adherence to God in Christ by the blessed Spirit in the ways of holiness notwithstanding opposition Acts 11. 23. Who when he came and had seen the grace of God was glad and exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. Having shewed what a Faith it is which is requisite both to our initial and continued Justification or what Faith it is which is requisite both to our initial and and continued right to Christ and to Pardon and Life purchased by him Let us now consider what this Faith includes as it gives the initial right and so I consider it especially as consisting in consent assent being previous 1. Repentance is included for in our sincere consent to take God to be our God Christ to be our Redeemer which includes an accepting him in all his Offices and the Holy Spirit to be our Sanctifier there is implied a cordial confessing and forsaking of all Sin and this with self loathing self judging enmity and opposition in the Heart against it 2. Love to God and the ways of holiness is included for it cannot be that ever any should sincerely consent to be the Lord's and make choice of the ways of holiness to walk in unless there be such a sight of their excellency and amiableness as draws their Love from Sin and the World and fixeth it principally hereupon 3. This consent includes Obedience radically for there can be no real consent to be Christ's unless there be a full resolution to do and suffer whatsoever he calls us unto this consent we speak of brings Christ and Souls into the Relation of Master and Servants and there cannot be a real consent to be Christ's Servants unless there be a willingness to do the work which he commands us and a resolution through Grace to continue in it so that it is manifest that Faith which justifies or gives right to Pardon and Life it includes Repentance Love to God and radically new Obedience and though it is like upon the matter I may procure to my self the name of a Papist I must not for that be affrighted from owning a truth that bears its own evidence before it But by the way I would have such Persons who are so ready to fix such names upon others as they judge may render them odious to consider what our Divines mean when they say that where there is one Grace there is every Grace and tell me where there is the act and exercise of that Faith which unites to Christ whether there can be this without the exercise of Repentance and Love inclusive what hath been said may give sufficient light to know how to answer the Question to such as desire to learn and think not themselves wise enough already Though seeing I am upon this I shall take leave further to offer this to consideration and let it be under correction that where there is the exercise in truth of Grace the exercise of that one Grace I speak of the sensible exercise doth include the exercise of the most if not the exercise of all Grace As thus Suppose we the exercise of true Repentance there must be
though I be by Office a teacher of others yet I am but a disciple my self and desire further and further instruction from my great Master and if it appear that it is his I hope I shall take it let the Instrument be what it will that he is pleased to make use of If any shall be offended because the work is not so accurate nor in such a fine dress as they think it should have been I must tell them I did not study to please such but my aim was the information and edification of those who desire more sound knowledge for practice than the subtilty of wit or the sound of words to please the â—ar And therefore if this of mine will not please because it wants the dress they desire they are at liberty to let it alone and cook and dress something for themselves and their own guests of this nature and serve it up in a dish in which it may be more grateful and go better off And whereas Readers you may meet with the repetition of some things know it was not with a design to fill up Paper or make a great deal of a little but because many things did occur which did require it seeing that many Persons will scarce take the pains to look back to what they have had though I have put them upon it in several parts of this work And my request to you Readers whosoever you be is that you will not content your selves with the notion of truth it is good in it self yea and it is necessary to have your judgments as clear and sound as may be but know if this be all you are but passing for all your light towards utter darkness Christian practice according to knowledge and the increase thereof is the life of the matter he that knows his Master's will and doth it not shall be beaten with many stripes For a Man to have a head full of light so that he can both discourse of and defend the truths of God and yet have an heart stuffed with pride hypocrisie formality love of the World desires after its profits preferments and honours and a life alienated from the life of God living in 〈◊〉 formity to this vain World a stranger to a Spiritual and 〈◊〉 venly conversation alas this light will but prove an ◠〈…〉 â— tion of his condemnation whatever light of the truth any Man hath that makes him not more holy humble and heavenâ—y in heart and life unites him not more to God in Christ makes not Christ more pretious and this world with all the fading enjoyments of it of a small value compared therewith and is not improved by a close walking with God according to the rule of his word this his knowledge though good in it self yet it is unprofitable for him Such an acquaintance with God in Christ by the Holy Spirit from the word as enricheth a Soul with experience of God's favour which is life and his loving kindness which is better than life and so excites and quickens love to God desire after him delight in him through Christ as that such a Soul resolves to follow God and adhere to him by faith in self-denial and crucifiction to this World for all the trials and matter of discouragement it meets with this this is the Soul which hath that knowledge of God in Christ which is life eternal begun John 17. 3. And this is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Sirs Converse with God through Christ by the Holy Spirit in all his ordinances is that which I beseech you be concerned for and though some deride this yet know that all your devotion is to no purpose if you live and die strangers to it for why well it is but cold formal and customary without it it is not a living but a dead service in which persons are and continue unacquainted what converse with the living God means that God who is the Infinite Ocean of good through Jesus Christ And though it is true there is not the like sensible enjoyment of God's quickening presence at all times yet it is that which a Child of God desires and cannot content himself without and therefore when he waits upon God and finds it not so as he desires this is an affliction unto him for this is that which he values before and which glads his Soul above the best of Creature confluences when it is enjoyed Psalm 4. 6 7. There be many that say who will shew us any good Lord life thou up the light of thy countenance upon us Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn and their wine encreased These lower things are but insipid and unsavory compared where this is enjoyed Know therefore upon the matter whoever they aâ—e that deny communion with God they must at the same time deny that there is any such thing as a superlative love of God for if they will grant this then there must be communion seeing that which any Man loves above and before all other things his heart cannot but be united unto and 〈◊〉 his thoughts will with the greatest sweerness be exerâ—â—spamâ—â— upon it and his desires work warmly after it if absent and his chief delight be in it if present and enjoyed and is not here communion and thus it must be where there is a superlative love to God which undoubtedly is in the heart of every true Christian and so both union and communion In a word Sirs consider your all of good is from God through Christ by the Spirit from the Father as the â—ountain through the Son as the purchaser by the Spirit as the principal applier and worker nothing of good is from your selves purchased and merited by your selves or by you wrought in your selves Keep humble then admire and adore the love grace and mercy of the Trinity of Persons in the unity of the Godâ—head in all the good you receive and enjoy and say of thine own we have received and of thine own we give thee back again And in the work and way of sincere constant obedience to God's commands according to your vow and promise in Baptism look by faith unto and plead the satisfactory and meritorious Righteousness of Christ for the acceptation of all your duties which retains and will do its mediating virtue for which be you ever ever ever thankful Coloss 3. 17. And whatsover ye do in word or deed do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God and the Father by him If this be your practice which the Doctrine I have delivered and have been vindicating in these few sheets directs to you will find the blessed fruit of it through and for our blessed Mediatour And though Men of a contray mind set themselves to oppose judging themselves hereby wise enough already and not only so but reproach such as will not make their measure their Rule as proud conceited and self righteous Persons who make light of Christ's Righteousness and accounting themselves and such as are on their part the only grave serious humble Christians I mean these that do thus oppose yet let not uâ— render evil for evil but earnestly desire of God that these Meâ— may be found such as they account themselves to be And thaâ— none of us through our abuse of light may be found such proud conceited Pharisaical Persons as these Men have passed the doom I am sure if we do the Doctrine will not be in the fault for iâ— hath a contrary tendency as hath been shewn Heb. 10 20 21 Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lorâ— Jesus that great Shepherd of the Sheep through the blood of thâ— everlasting Covenant Make you perfect in every good work to 〈◊〉 will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight througâ— Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen FINIS