co quod Christus peccatum pro nobis factus est Hoc autem ipsum est Christi Obedientia Ergo Justitia Dei non est Christi Obedientia Wotton Besides That we might be made the Righteousness of God in him is expressed by the Apostle as the End or Effect of his being made Sin for us He was made Sin for us not Formaliter but Effective in suffering for our Sins His Sufferings was his Obedience and that his Righteousness By the Righteousness of God therefore we must not understand the Righteousness of Christ because that which is the End or Effect of a Thing cannot be the very same Thing but another differing from it There is yet that Text more which will receive the like easie Interpretation on that Supposition Christ is the End of the Law for Righteousness to him that believeth the Believer being righteous In and With and not only meritory By his Righteousness according to Rom. 10.4 But the Supposition really is too gross the Notion too hard to be digested as well as dangerous in regard to the Antinomian Consequences of it If in a Law-sence we are righteous and have fulfilled the Law in Christ then in a Law-sence God sees no Sin in us we need no Pardon God cannot in Justice punish for any thing we do with the Lerna of the like Doctrines which follow upon it If in a Law-sence Christ's Righteousness is ours and we have fulfilled the Law in him then are we in a Law-sence justified by Works when by the Works of the Law the Scripture says no Flesh living shall be justified It the Notion of Faith being imputed for Righteousness which is Scripture must be so framed as by Faith we must understand its Object Christ's Righteousness so imputed but first received by Faith or made ours by Faith as the Instrument of that Reception How then shall those many Fathers and Holy Men before Luther who never had any such Notion in their Minds Nay how shall the Patriarchs and all the Holy People from Adam to Christ have been justified as we which is to be Righteous with this Righteousness when they never had the Instrument to receive it An Instrument is that the Efficient works by And when there is not the working Cause how can there be the Effect It is not credible to me that ever any one before Christ or any of his Disciples before his Death did or could believe themselves Righteous by the Satisfaction and Obedience of the Messiah in this sence that his Righteousness should or could be their Formal Righteousness when As St. John tells us He that doth Righteousness is righteous so is this Righteousness done the Formal Righteousness and Christ's Obedience and Satisfaction the Meritorious Cause and the Account we give of its acceptance in the Sinners Justification A Third Text and parallel Place we have in Rom. 8.3 4. What the Law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh c. That is I suppose when through the Fall no Man could perform the Condition of the Law of Works God sent his Son as it follows to be a Sacrifice for Sin to procure a Law of Grace That the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit How is that when none can fulfil the Law through the Weakness of the Flesh do we fulfil it Yes It is not said fulfilled in Christ but in Us and it is fulfilled by this Righteousness of God which being on our part all one with the Obedience of Faith God upon Christ's Account imputes that to us for Righteousness or reckons it instead of fulfilling it making it as good to us and rewarding us alike as if we had perfectly performed it It is an Obedience or Righteousness indeed not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I have it before according to the Rigour of the Law but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Equity of the Gospel It is not in its own Nature a Righousness falling short of the Law that would justifie us but it does it by Divine Institution and therefore called the Righteousness of God It is an Ordination of Grace through Jesus Christ and therefore is God righteous in what he does But on our part it is called the Righteousness of Faith I do observe therefore how that Religiously Learned Gentleman Sir Charles Wolesley having wrote his Book of Justification after I had wrote and he had read my Sheets on the same Subject hath these Words upon that forementioned Critical Place 2 Cor. 5.21 The meaning is this says he Christ that was without all Sin was ordained of God to be a Sacrifice for Sin that we might thereby be made righteous with the Gospel Righteousness for that is the general meaning every where of the Righteousness of God Sir C. W. p. 64. This I know I delivered as my Judgment in those Sheets and his saying the same after is as much as if he had said I have considered what you say and am convinced that this is the meaning of that Text and that you are right in your Sence of the Righteousness of God It is a walking after the Spirit not after the Flesh though not perfectly up to our Duty And the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus after which we walk in our measure does set us free from the Law of Sin and Death I will proceed to some Consequences like to be good or ill as they follow upon a right or mistaken understanding of this Righteousness If by it the Righteousness of Christ imputed be understood By the exercise of Faith in apprehending the same to be made ours so as to bring it before the Tribunal of God's Justice for our Justification thereby according to the Law of Works the very Life of that Faith or Comfort of that Life which consists in trusting resting relying on God's Mercy and Goodness for pardoning all the Failings of our Performances and accepting them even our very Desires and weakest Endeavours through the Merits of Christ unto Life so as by that Faith we have access to the Throne of Grace and are justified according to the Gospel is stopt perverted if not quite contradicted and lost Nay if the End of Christ's Obeying and Satisfying the Law was that his Satisfaction and Obedience should be made ours upon Condition for our Divines here are cautious and do generally take heed to put in that to wit upon Performance of the Terms the Gospel requires of us in order to it and not otherwise then cannot the Merits of Christ be so rationally I think applied thus as I speak to the Performance of the Condition Our Divines indeed do say that Christ hath not only procured this Imputation on Condition but Grace also for the Performance of the Condition some say General Grace for all that will some Special that makes some to will but this Condition must be performed by our Free-Will or Grace so
in God's sight whatsoever they were in their own but that all have sinned and need that Messias they expected to make Reconciliation for their Sins that our Lord Jesus Christ being that true Messias by his Death answering their Legal Sacrifices hath born the Curse of the Law and so redeemed us from it That God's undeserved Goodness here in accepting of Sinners through this meritorious Sacrifice of his to Pardon and Life upon Condition which he gives the Grace also to perform presupposed and by me acknowledg'd it is another Righteousness and not that of the Jews Not that Paul calls his own as a Jew or not a Righteousness of Works Perfect Works but a Righteousness of Faith which makes the Reward only of Grace Of Faith that it may be of Grace a Righteousness of Faith but a true Faith working by Love which is an Internal Righteousness though imperfect and not as the External Works of the Jews was is that Righteousness of God in opposition to the Terms of the Law whereby we are justified and saved The Apostle I observe in one place speaking of Faith calls it the Obedience of Faith the same Word if you compare that Text Rom. 11.30 31. with the Margin signifying both to Believe and Obey And the People believed God and his Servant Moses I will conclude hereupon that Christ's Redemption in the immediate fruit thereof which is the Grant of a General Pardon through his Satisfaction to all the World on Condition being laid as a foundation To be justified by Faith is to be justified by performing that Condition To be justified by Faith Believe me at parting is in St. Paul's Mind to be justified by the Obedience of Faith in opposition to the task of the Law that is in St. Paul's Mind I say opposing the Jew by embracing the Christian Religion and living according to it Reader In p. 14. l. 34. correct the Word its and make it it with a Full Point after Other Errataes you may find at the end of the Book or mend your self OF THE Righteousness of GOD In the Matter of JUSTIFICATION The First PART BEcause upon the right Understanding of what the Apostle means by the Righteousness of God without the Law revealed now in the Gospel which indeed is dark and hardly understood I think by Papist or Protestant in their Disputes and much less by our Brethren in their present Differences does depend the Elucidation of the Great Article of Justification whereof I wrote some Sheets formerly called The Middle Way and more lately six Sheets called Pacification I have thought good yet to write a few more upon some further increase of my own Knowledge about this Subject And under this Title I beseech God for his Light and Truth and for Integrity of Heart and Pardon of my Weakness and Failings for my self and for the removal of Prejudice from and the establishing the Judgment of others who shall read what is written The Search after Truth is indeed hard Work it is digging in a Mine It was so to me in writing on this Point at first and it is still What I dig up is but rude it is the Ore as it comes naturally and that is best to edifie those that would improve it I am one whose Genius is averse from any Notion imposed and receives none without distrust that does not arise first out of my own Mind or that I see something new to cultivate it I do not only bear with others but do like them often better that they differ from me because I know I differ from the most Where the Mine though is Gold as the Scripture is there is no Dust of it but must be saved The least Dust of Gold is Gold and if any other who hath better Words and Parts will be at the pains to sift and order what I have digged I doubt not but they may make Gold of that which I have brought to be but the Dust of Gold When a Book is so Methodized as it does exhaust its Subject there is no coming after it But when there is only some Ore turn'd up something of Notion for others to refine a riper Wit will be encouraged to an Endeavour of bringing that Something to more perfection It is so with my Middle-Way Books I am content to be but the Digger I expect some others should be the Refiners of what I have digged The Trent Doctrine which is the perfect papists I must confess is lead them bâ— St. Austine They say Justification is the making a Man just Ex impio Christianum by Infusion of Grace inherent or Charity Being justified freely by his Grace Augustine being immersed in his Dispute with Pelagius could think of Grace in no Sence but this and by Freely Gratis justified he understood only that Works preparatory did not merit this infusion which the Trent-Doctors also say after him The Efficient Cause quae efficit is the Spirit the Instrumental Cause qua efficitur Baptism the Meritorious Cause propter quam Christ's Death the Formal Cause per quam of Justification is this Grace infused Gratia Habitualis Habitual Righteousness making the Man before ungodly now righteous in God's sight This habitual Righteousness then being infused by Baptism they say does abolish Sin so that there remains in the Baptized after the Opus Operatum nothing that is Peccatum but Fomes Peccati only and upon that Account is perfect so by the Law justifies and the Works proceeding from it meritorious of Salvation This is their Opinion and they fall foul on us for holding Justification by Pardon only or by Christ without inherent Grace as if Good Works were laid aside by us altogether Our Protestants therefore renouncing this Charge do grant an habitual Righteousness or Grace infused as necessary in the justified Person but deny this Righteousness to be that which justifies him they deny Justification to be Regeneration and distinguish these as two things It is not this inherent Righteousness say they that can be opposed between the Wrath of God and our Conscience of Sin to be the Cause Propter quam we are not condemned No there is a Righteousness they add without us that is the Righteousness of Christ performed for us and by our Faith made ours that we rely upon to do this for us Our inherent Grace is inchoate imperfect and cannot standing in Judgment before God This being now partly well on both sides there is a Middle Way appears which we must take between them It is true against the Papists that there is no such Righteousness inherent though infused by the Holy Spirit as does abolish Sin and make us so just that we can oppose it to Gods Wrath so as to render him appeased with the Sinner or that the Conscience can rest on it as that Proper quod he is forgiven or saved It is true likewise against the common Protestant that there is not any Righteousness without us that can be made ours so as we
the Remission which precedes Justification It must be understood of this Universal Conditional Remission Reconciliation Redemption when that Remission which comes after Justification as its Effect that is Particular Absolute or Actual Remission is made so or obtained only upon the Terms of the Gospel As in our Laws when a Law that is good proves inconvenient we make a New one that does not Repeal that Law but brings a Remedy against that Inconvenience So is it here The Law of Innocency or Nature is good and such as stands and must stand in all respects Unrepealed for ever but upon Man's Fall there being this Inconvenience that no Man being able to perform it perfectly we must all perish a New Law is obtained by Christ and granted by God or an Act of Grace passed by way of Remedy a Remedying Law which Enacts thus That tho' a Man does not fulfil this Law of Works as all ought yet if he Believes and Repents only he shall be pardoned and saved Every Man that does not is condemned already but if he does as soon as he does he is justified by this New Law from that Condemnation When I see Men denominated Righteous through the Old and New Testament only from their upright Walking with God and yet the most Upright to have their Failings and to place their Comfort and Hopes in God's Mercy and Grace to pardon their Failings and accept their Endeavours to please him notwithstanding their Imperfections as we may observe more especially in the Psalms When those Christians that have gone before us holy Men and Fathers have signified the like Temper in such like Expressions Tota justitia mea Domine est tui indulgentia Vae hominum vitae quantumvis laudabili si remota misericordia judicetur Inhaerens justitia sanctorum in hac Vita magis remissione pâ—ccatorum constat quam perfectione Virtutum Ego fidenter quod ex me mihi deest usurpo mihi ex visceribus Domini quoniam miserecordia affluunt nec desunt foramina per quae effluunt Omnia facta deputantur cum quod non fit ignoscitur And when in their Prayers after Confession of Sin they have been wont as they used to express themselves to fly from God's Tribunal of Justice to his Throne of Grace from his Severity to his Mercy through Christ Which through Christ must be for his Merits sake not through his imputed Righteousness for then they should stay at the Bar of his Justice still and by the Law be justified When I say I let these Reflections enter my Soul I cannot but be perswaded that the Righteousness of God whereof I am speaking and the Gospel hath Revealed to be that Righteousness whereby we are justified in opposition to Works must receive between Protestant and Papist a Middle Exposition And what now is said hitherto may be confirmed by the Light it brings for the understanding several Scriptures which are otherwise very hard of Interpretation I will begin with that in Romans the First where we find a Free Gift mentioned in several places which by the Righteousness of One came upon All Men the Apostle speaks unto Justification What is that Free Gift In one Verse we are told it is the Gift of Righteousness But what Righteousness Is it the Righteousness of Christ Our Protestants even the judicious Davenant against the Papists say so but it cannot be For that which comes by the Righteousness of One cannot be that Righteousness of One itsself nor Justification itself that follows it What is it then Why very probably this Righteousness of God we are speaking of that runs so much in the Apostle's Mind which is on God's part the Grace of the Gospel that gives Pardon and Life upon Condition of Faith and so brings Salvation to all Men procured by this Righteousness of One and that as the Medium to Man's Justification By this Key let him that will and has a better Faculty of Words than I open for me the rest of the Chapter I proceed to another Text Rom. 3.31 Do we then make void the Law by Faith God forbid Yea we establish the Law How is that The Law is established I remember Austin tells us Implendo and Faith does establish it by fetching Grace from God to fulfil it So he I add by fetching not only this Grace which is Inherent and Operative but that Grace which is Favour and Mercy in pardoning all that is defective and accepting what is done how weak soever if sincere notwithstanding those Failings unto Life through the Merits of Christ Jesus Or thus It is done by Faith because Faith which is sound and works by Love is this very Righteousness of God on our part we speak of which he accepts of unto Life instead of that of the Law upon Christ's Account And here are there certain Words I meet with in Melancthon and Chemnitius which tho' not in their perfect Sence may be used and approved Faith establishes the Law say they Dupliciter by Inchoation and by Imputation By Inchoation in the New Obedience whereof Faith is the Principle or Faith receives the Spirit as they speak to work in us that Obedience And then by Imputation in that our inchoate Obedience being imperfect and not answering the Law Faith doth apply the Satisfaction and Merits of Christ already intimated for the pardoning all its Defects and rendring it acceptable to God for his sake This I take to be agreeable to the Father before quoted Tunc tota lex impletur quando id quod non fit ignoscitur Only I must add Et quando id quod fit imputatur ad justitiam propter Christum I know these worthy Followers of Luther and also most of Calvin's Followers do understand by their Imputation more than thus even no less than that Christ's Righteousness is made ours by Faith so as God does reckon the Believer to have satisfied and obeyed the Law in him Upon supposition of which Notion here were so easie a Construction to be made of these Texts and others that are chiefly stood upon that no wonder if after one or two such Leaders there were so many embraced it If Christ's Righteousness which is perfect be in a Law-sence the Believer's then in a Law-sence the Believer performs it and so the Law is established according to this place In a Law-sence he is made Righteous by the Obedience of One and so becomes as Righteous as that One according to another Text Rom. 5.19 He is made the Righteousness of God in him Indued with the Righteousness of him who is God according to 2 Cor. 5.21 But the words Of and In Of God and In Him do plainly shew that God and Him are two and consequently that serious Man Mr. Mather with such other Divines must be out when they understand by the Righteousness of God the Righteousness of Christ who is God seeing this Construction makes them one * Justitia Dei est finis sive effectum ex
Scripture speaks Lingua Filiorum hominum as the Jews say Or as the Schools Secundum nostrum concipiendi modum in many Matters incomprehensible To leave Mr. Wotton's Genus Definitionis therefore to himself without farther concern he hath defined Justification by Remission of Sin in opposition to those that define it by the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness and he hath elaborately proved this to be the Sence of the Church of England and Calvin's with many others I do now agree with Mr. Wotton herein in excluding the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness in his Sence intended that is as our Formal Righteousness out of the Definition because there is no such thing as the Imputation thereof In se tho' the Merit of it be imputed to Believers as to the Effects But I do not agree with him in making Remission of Sin to be that he wont let the other be the Form or Formal Reason of our Justification Because I hold with Mr. Bradshaw our Actual Pardon to be the Effect or Benefit of it The Righteousness of God which is not yet throughly understood by Protestant or Papist and I have made the Subject of this Dissertation is indeed that Formal Righteousness we are seeking and I do not think that any Man in his first natural reading Paul's Epistle to the Romans who brought not his Understanding from without to the place did ever apprehend by that Righteousness of God now Revealed when Remission of Sin was a thing never Hid that Pardon only is to be understood I will advise every Judicious Man therefore when any material Point is concerned in a Text to ponder it in the Original several times 'till he come to some Resolution about it in his own Mind because when he hath sucked in the Sence of another his own Judgment is worth nothing Mr. Wotton hath said enough to turn a Man to his Opinion he is so rational a Man but having been myself otherwise inclined as to the Sence of this Righteousness and finding the Scripture calling no Man righteous but upon the Account of doing righteously I cannot comply with Mr. Wotton in his Notion nor with the contrary in such as the hitherto prevailing Dr. Owen in theirs The Ministry of the Gospel is called the Ministration of Righteousness upon the Account of this Righteousness as also the Ministration of the Spirit in regard of the Grace the Spirit brings to perform it which Austine I remember in his Book De Spiritu Littera hath told us It can by no means be called the Ministration Thereof in regard to Remission of Sins There are many the like Arguments I think I could find out against Mr. Wotton's Opinion but that my Discourse is rather to be Demonstrative than Elenctical and therefore I must not omit that place in Daniel where it is prophesied that Christ shall bring in Righteousness that is a Righteousness procured by his Death and Merits and called an Everlasting Righteousness being that by which they that ever were are or shall be so are justified and saved and it is said brought in and at such a time when the Messiah shall be slain as it is said Now Manifested or Revealed by the Gospel which is I said but now the Ministration of it To which purpose it is to be understood and observed farther that Righteousness as well as Reconciliation and the making an End of Sins is one End of our Redemption which I have explained more * That the End of Christ's coming in the World of our Redemption and the Covenant of Grace was that we should be holy and righteous is said ordinarily by Divines according to the Scriptures but the right and plain Understanding or Reason of what they say is not said by them He hath chosen us in Christ that we should be Holy He hath redeemed us from Iniquity that we should be a peculiar People We are his Workmanship created unto Good Works in or through Christ Jesus Well! when God made Man at first and gave him a Law was it not that he should live holy And when Righteousness then was the End of his Creation and the Law thereof how is this said to be the End of his Redemption I answer therefore Righteousness or Holiness as they are one we must know does lie in a Conformity to the Law which God gives us There is nothing less than this the full Performance of a Law given that is Righteousness Upon this Account as soon as Man once fell and broke the Law of his Creation it is impossible he should be righteous any more unless there were a New Law brought in in the Performance whereof he might attain to that again which he had lost Now to this End was it that Christ came and died This was the very main Business I count of his Redemption as to free us from Condemnation by the Old so even the procuring this New Law or another Law with lower Terms which some Men performing they do thereby become righteous and so have Righteousness according to that Law imputed to them for Remission and Life Eternal Here you see what that Righteousness indeed is which Christ is said to bring in and in what Sence he hath brought it in or how such Texts as these before does attribute our Holiness to him It is called an Everlasting Righteousness as the Gospel is called the Everlasting Gospel because it is the Righteousness in opposition to that of the Law or of Works that all Men from the Beginning of the World to the End of it do obtain Everlasting Salvation Mid. Way of Justif p. 43. other-where Daniel 9.24 Titus 2.14 Well! you will say then if the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness be not the Form of our Justification nor Remission of Sins when some Protestants say the one and some the other and some both what then is the Form of it I answer Mr. Wotton hath told us truly in the rest of his Words It is God's imputing to a Man his Faith for Righteousness This is Scripture express and the Righteousness of God I am treating of is otherwhere called the Righteousness of God by Faith and the Righteousness of Faith for that is express Scripture also Justification supposes a Man just Justificationis formam justitia constare certum est God cannot account a Man righteous without a Righteousness The Papists therefore are hot here with Calvin that will have a Man be justified only by Remission of Sins without an inherent Righteousness and the Protestants as hot with the Papists that will have any inherent Grace or Righteousness of ours to be such as answers the Law that it should justifie us for by Righteousness both understand a Conformity to the Law of Works Both therefore are out There is no such inherent Grace as answers the Law nor any Grace from without either Remission of Sins or Christ's Righteousness imputed that is or can be our Formal Righteousness but it is Faith which is Grace and
the Form of that Imputation but of Justification passively taken I add at last upon the Account of Christ's Merits or through Christ or for Christ's sake because this Faith of ours or Evangelick Righteousness hath so many Defects in the best of Christians that if through the Sacrifice of Christ they were not pardoned and through his Merits that imperfect Duty which is done accepted it could not be imputed to us for Righteousness And I do more especially signifie thereby that Christ's Righteousness which cannot be imputed to us as the Formal Cause of our Justification is and must be very carefully brought to our Account and granted to be imputed as the Meritorious Cause of that Acceptation And in making it the Meritorious I have learn'd of Mr. Baxter to allow it to be the Material also which he says is nothing else but to be the Matter of that Merit because I make our Faith the Formal in our Justification After this I distinguish between this pardoning and bearing with the Defects of our Faith Repentance New Obedience which are the Conditions of the Gospel Covenant and so our Gospel Righteousness or that which is imputed for Righteousness and that General or Total Pardon which the Covenant promises and becomes Absolute upon performing the Condition The one of these is that very Grace or Act of Grace itself as goes into that Act of Imputation or Act that imputes our Faith for Righteousness when the other I say still is the Effect or Benefit following Justification Justification being thus defined by God's imputing a Man's Faith to him for Righteousness it may be understood what Mr. Baxter still tell us that Justification is the making us righteous as well as the accounting us righteous and dealing with us as righteous I have been shy hitherto of admitting the first of these because of the Papists but I will now distinguish There is a making a Man just or righteous by Infusion or by Imputation Gods making a Man just by Infusion is Regeneration which the Papists hold and we distinguish from Justification I suppose Mr. Baxter once intended no other Those that will have Justification nothing but Forgiveness do readily grant this that Justification makes one just for when Sin is forgiven so that there is not the Guilt of any Omission or Commission imputed to a Person he is made Righteous by Non-imputation But I am for neither of these Justification is not making a Man righteous by Infusion nor by Non imputation but by Imputation God imputing our Faith to us for Righteousness Per formalem Justificationis causam justi constituimur Our Faith and Evangelick Obedience is imperfect and sinful and we are unrighteous in the Eye of the Law for all that but God in his judging us according to the Law of Grace does allow of that for Christ's sake instead of all which the Law requires to our Justification By this may that Expression of the Apostle that God justifies the Ungodly be rightly understood Not in the Sence or either of the former that take it only in Sensu diviso so that he who before his Justification was ungodly is no longer so after but In sensu composito Our Faith I say or Evangelical Obedience in regard to the Law or in regard to those Works that are required by the Law to our Justification are no Righteousness no Righteousness which in its own Nature would justifie us but God constitutes it such by the Law of the Gospel and according to that Law imputes it to us for Righteousness A Man believes Let us suppose that Sound Faith The Spirit must have been given to work it in him Where the Spirit is given to work inherent Grace in a Person he is Regenerate But this Regeneration is not Justification For suppose a Regenerate Man should live all his Life as righteously as he is able yet if God should deal with him according to the Law of Works he is still ungodly in that regard and he could not be justified and God's dealing with him otherwise according to his Law of Grace and accounting or adjudging him righteous by that Law notwithstanding all his Failings for Christ's sake is this imputing Faith to him for Righteousness which is the Formal Reason of Justification I must take leave to rake this again a little over for I see some need and I must confess Mr. Baxter hath perplexed me often as to this particular In some of his Books he speaks of Justification making us just by Pardon which freeing us from the Guilt of all Sin Omission and Commission does make us he accounts righteous as we can be made In others he seems to understand with Augustine that Justification makes us just by Grace inherent A Man must believe and repent before he is justified He cannot do that without God's Grace God does therefore first make him righteous by this inherent Grace before he accounts him just or deals with him as such Mr. Baxter was induced to this I think by the Judicious Le Blanc who apprehends that there are three or four places for which he quotes some of our chief Protestants that make Justification the same with Sanctification Unto which Texts I should choose rather to give Answer according to others than to consent to this because it comes so near the Papists as to leave us almost no difference from them I will therefore advance here a Distinction to the same purpose as but now which among the many Mr. Baxter hath he yet has not and it is this There is a threefold making a Man just By Conversion or Regeneration and this is Austine's and the Papists Justification By Pardon and this is Mr. Wotton's Justification Or by the Righteousness of God which I made the Subject of these Sheets as something between Protestant and Papist and this is God's imputing our Faith for Righteousness which is my Justification and I will call it mine because I take it to be the Scriptures where it is expresly delivered as cannot be gainsaid The Papists Opinion to make things clear is that the Grace of God infused is the Formal Righteousness that justifies us or makes us just in God's sight according to the Law of Works Justitia Habitualis à Deo infusa satis est ut homo illa indutus possit in Divino judicio sisti vere justus haberi In this Sence the Protestants lay down this contrary Position that a Sinner is justified not by any Formal Righteousness in himself but by the Mercy of God through the Satisfaction of Christ. The Protestants I own here against the Papist according to the Papists Sence Our Faith or Evangelick Righteousness or inherent Grace I must say this over is imperfect and cannot be our Formal Righteousness according to the Law it is no Conformity to the Law of Works and they of Trent thought of no other but our imperfect Faith Repentance New Obedience is a Conformity to that which God hath made the Condition
does concur to our Justification only Sub genere sub ratione or Per modum causae efficientis Meritoriae and not Per modam causae formalis it is but understanding that the Meritorious Cause in our Justification it preferred before or valued above the Formal which without the Virtue of that were none by such Expressions and if any be in the Mire they may come out Mr. Gibbons for explaining himself supposes us as if we stood at a double Bar the Bar of the Law and the Bar of the Gospel At the one it is Ratione Objecti that Faith justifies At the other it justifies Formaliter As to the one Faith says he lays hold on Christ's Satisfaction which is our Legal Righteousness As to the other Faith itself is keeping Covenant understand Quoad faederis Conditionem or fulfilling the Gospel Very fine I must profess all if Faith indeed made Christ's Legal Righteousness to be Formaliter Ours as it is Formaliter our Evangelical itself which formerly our great Divines apprehended but were exceedingly out and wounded our Cause It cannot be that this Righteousness should any otherwise be ours than Per modum Meriti that is only in the Effects And in this Sence Non formaliter but Effective must that Expression be understood The Lord our Righteousness if by the Lord Christ personally be intended If not Hominis Justitia est Dei indulgentia does give the true and full Sence of it I must confess I am at a stand about this Gentleman 's two Bars That all Men who hear the Gospel shall be judged by it I hold for certain upon the Account if we had no more for it that Christ sent out his Apostles to declare to the World in his Name That He that believes shall be saved and He that believes not shall be damned The Believer is one freed from the Law and cannot be brought therefore to its Bar. He that believes shall not come into Judgment If we walk after the Spirit we are not under the Law There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus We are not under the Law but under Grace These are plain Texts as to the Believer and as for the Unbeliever we know he is condemned already and there needs no bringing him afresh to the same Bar. One Bar will serve both where the Grand Inquest will be this only whether or no we have performed the Condition of the Gospel They that have are acquitted they that have not are left under that Condemnation To wave this therefore any farther than it is of Concern let me recur to the Legal Righteonsness Mr. Gibbons speaks of and Mr. Williams accordingly which he counts we must have together with our Evangelical to justifie us and therefore I will shew that if he mean it in the common Sence and Sence of others that he is out and that he is in a mistake I will shew that those that speak thus according to the common Apprehensions of the Protestants that they are first out and then I will shew their Mistake and set them right That they are out I shew first By this Legal Righteousness what they understand we sufficiently know that is the Righteousness of Christ made theirs in a Legal Sence to wit though the Righteousness of one cannot become another's Naturally or Morally yet Legally the common Opinion is that Christ's Righteousness is every true Believers Here then let us distinguish of this Legal Righteousness in respect to the Preceptive or Retributive part of the Law As to the Preceptive part of it I do avouch with Mr. Baxter that no Man or Woman is or ever hath except Christ himself been justified by the Performance thereof either by himself or by another in his Civil Person as fully representing him For if we are reputed such says Mr. Baxter as have fulfilled the Law there is no room for Christ's Sufferings for Repentance for Faith in his Blood for Pardon or Prayer for it or for any Duty which supposeth Sin as Sacraments and other Ordinances and so the Gospel is subverted as he still tells us And as for the Retributive part of the Law I must say no less that if we are reputed in Christ to have born the Penalty or his bearing it be indeed our Legal Righteousness then must our Evangelical be made needless for when we are free from all Guilt both of Omission and Commission so that we are as righteous as we can be made already there is no more to be imposed or can be in order to our being justified or saved and so the Gospel is subverted also Not that Mr. Baxter or I deny the Righteousness of Christ as to the Retributive part of the Law to be imputed no nor that of his as to the Perceptive part seeing his Satisfaction consists in both but that neither are otherways imputed than as I say before Per modum meriti as to the Effects and to give it in Mr. Baxter's own Words Imputed so as that we have it in the relation of a Meritorious Cause to the End or Use which God accepts it for and hath assigned in the Gospel That they mistake and how they mistake to make it out and make it up I must shew next That Christ obeyed the Law and suffered the Penalty for us so as what he did and suffered was in our behalf in our stead room or place is by us all acknowledged What is done or suffered in another's stead we are then to understand is done or suffered to free the other from doing or suffering the same which else he should as I have stood upon it in my other Sheets Thus the Beast died instead of the Sacrificer of it Whereas then this Legal Righteousness which the common Opinion supposes must be Ours to justifie us was performed by Christ in our room or stead that we might not our selves perform it how manifestly are they of that Opinion mistaken in that Supposition Christ did perfectly fulfil the Precept of the Law that such a perfect fulfilling of it might not be required of us as the Condition of Life as by the Law it was Christ did undergo the Penalty that we might not our selves suffer it and be damned The Satisfaction then of Christ which contains both cannot In se be imputed to us or reputed as Our Satisfaction because then it must not be in our room or place that he satisfied nor God accounted that he did God does impute to us his Sufferings that we might not suffer and therefore does not look on us as having suffered He does impute to us his fulfilling the Law that we might not be put to it to fulfil it our selves and yet have the Reward as much as if we had where is Imputation still we see only Quoad fructus effectus and therefore looks not on us as if we had performed it Here is the Mercy of God and happy Mistake of these Men. A Legal Righteousness is imposed on his
many for fear on one hand least they live short of that universal unreserved Obedience which is the most general Mark given of Sincerity and on the other hand when they have come to be satisfied a little as to that least they split on the Book of trusting to themselves or resting in Duty instead of the Righteousness of Christ received by Faith only All things that are comprized any way in following after Righteousness such as are all our Duties and Works are excluded from any Influence in our Justification says the Doctor p. 490. And in p. 493 he says When the Apostle James affirms that a Man is justified by Works and not by Faith only he cannot intend our Justification before God where it is impossible they should both concur I have no doubt but St. James and St. Paul both understood by the Justification they speak of our Justification before God I have proved it Mid. Way of Just p. 51 52. The Justification of Abraham before and at his Offering his Son argues nothing but that Justification is a continued Act as a Pardon at Law and seeing his Faith and Works had Influence in it against the Doctor I conceive that Faith and Works may be made to concur in Justification more kindly than Justification and Sanctification can in their Preaching of the Gospel The most of the Objections the Doctor tells us that are raised against his Doctrine do arise he says for want of a due Comprehension of the Order of the Work of Grace and our Compliance therewithal in a Way of Duty I must say the same of him and as to all that is raised by any against the Doctrine of the Righteousness of God which I am endeavouring to establish against that which is the Doctor 's and the common Protestants Own instead of Paul's Revealed in the Gospel The Gospel calls for Repentance out of Question as well as Faith and the Doctor and others could never exclude all Works from Justification against St. James but for want of a due Comprehending the Way and Method of becoming Righteous which God of his Grace and abundant Mercy when we were lost and liable to Damnation through the need of an irrecoverable Innocency hath instituted through Christ's Redemption and the Evangelick Condition accepted by him instead of the Righteousness of Works from whence we are fallen This is the Righteousness of God in a short Explanation * Well! Let us consult what is that Righteousness of God St. Paul speaks of Rom. 1.17 Rom. 3.21 22 26. Rom. 10.3 2 Cor. 5.21 Phil. 3.9 which he calls so God's Righteousness the Righteousness of Faith that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith in opposition to Works in the Point of Justification Is it the Righteousness of Christ who is God I am perswaded this is a First Thought so shallow that it must be short What then indeed is it This Righteousness of God is that Way and Method of becoming Righteous which is of God's Institution as Another hath expressed it That is not the Righteousness of Christ but that Righteousness through Christ which is Ordained of God and promulgated in the Gospel to be accepted I say through him unto Justification and Salvation But what Way and Method is that When God made Man we must conceive he had in his Prospect what to do with him and that was to glorifie himself in Saving him There was two Ways to do this Either by the Way of Works or Grace Man was Created with an Original Righteousness and what was Original must be Natural and if he had stood he must according to Nature have been Righteous and all his Posterity and the Reward then as it is reckon'd by the Apostle would have been of Debt or Merit and not of Grace God hereby should have glorified his Justice and Goodness in Saving Man but he should have shewn no Mercy nor Man have any need of it No nor any need of a Saviour or Redemption or the Holy Spirit 's Operation That is of that Grace which is Medicinal or Habitual Grace for I say if he had an Original Righteousness he had no need of the Infusion of a New to heal Original Corruption He would have been saved by Works proceeding from Nature Ex Regula viribus Naturae and not from Grace or the Spirit and have needed none of that Grace neither which is Favour but only God's Justice to have dealt with him according to that Law of Innocency which he had performed God therefore did not choose this Way that Man should be saved by a Righteousness of his own according to Nature but by Way of Grace and Works proceeding from Grace or the Holy Spirit and not of himself and that is by a Righteousness which is of God by Faith For by Grace are ye saved through Faith and not of your selves least any Man should boast That is not a Righteousness of your effecting but of God's own Contrivance who hath chosen this way rather than that of Works that none may ascribe that to themselves which is due only to God Not by Works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his Mercy he saved us by the washing of Water and renewing of the Holy Ghost Note here is the Righteousness we have done and the Renewing of the Holy Ghost so opposed as that we are saved by that Righteousness which is of God and of God's Spirit and not by that which is our Own How is that Why They being ignorant of God's Righteousness and going about to establish their own have not submitted to that which should have saved them The Performance of the Law of Moses was the Jews Righteousness for God says This shall be your Righteousness and the Performance of the Law of Nature or Covenant of Works is all Mankind's Righteousness and when neither Jew could perform the One nor any Mortal the Other there are none can be saved by the Righteousness of their Own but it must be by Another Righteousness called by the Apostle the Righteousness of God But now the Righteousness of God without the Law is manifest being witnessed by the Law and Prophets even the Righteousness of God which is by the Faith of Jesus Christ. Here is a Righteousness that was ever on foot in the World or none else could have been saved but now revealed by the Gospel which is the Righteousness that save us in opposition to the Righteousness of the Law or of Works even the Righteousness of Faith that is a Righteousness according to the Law or Covenant of Grace which Christ hath procured by his Blood Hence do we read it is said of Christ in Daniel that as he should make Reconciliation for Iniquity so he should bring in an Everlasting Righteousness that is by his Death he should procure a Covenant or Law of Grace by our Performance whereof without the Law we are righteous and must be justified and saved
'T is that is this Righteousness If Christ had not procured for us this New Law there could have been no Righteousness in the Earth for the Law of Innocency no Man can perform and therefore hath he by procuring this New Covenant brought in a Righteousness in the World and that which is the abiding Righteousness the Righteousness of this Covenant whereby all are saved that have or ever shall be saved Now when we have here a Righteousness which lies in the Performance of the Law of Grace purchased for us by Christ and wrought in us by the Spirit of Grace for the spirit we must know is not given to perform the Law of Works but this Law we do see what does belong to this Way of Grace which God hath chosen to save Man by This Way of Grace does contain in it the giving of Christ the Redemption we have by him our Reconciliation with God Pardon of Sin the Covenant itself and the Dispensation of the Spirit or his Grace for performing the Condition of it All this and more hang together so that when we say it is not by Works but by Grace that we are saved it is all one as to say it is not by Perfect Works but by an Evangelical Righteousness by Mercy by Pardon by Christ See what this Righteousness of God comes to in its right and full Definition Mid. Way of Just p. 57 58. I have two Pages to set it out more fuller in my Mid. Way of Just p. 57 58 and I have two Pages in my Pacif. p. 27 28 29 30. which should be read rather than here abridged The Design of God to save Man was to magnifie his Grace and therefore of two Ways to do it God chose this of Grace and not the Way of Works unto which yet was Man created and by which he should have lived if he had stood and it is such Works which Dr. Owen never came to consider unto which Grace is opposed by the Apostle To this End the Fall is permitted Redemption by Christ appointed This Redemption is double from Sin and from Condemnation Christ redeems us from Death by the Sacrifice of himself upon which an Act of Grace passes that gives Pardon and Life upon Condition and the Condition is Repentance toward God and Faith toward Jesus Christ. Redemption from Sin is by the Grace of God's Spirit working in us this Repentance and Faith in order to our Justification and is called by our Divines Effectual Vocation It is so far therefore from Truth to exclude Evangelical Works from any Interest in our Justification that they are ordained of God in order to it God hath linked his Golden Chain so that Election does enter our Calling for Effectual Calling is Actual Election and our Effectual Calling does enter our Justification for the Works of it Faith Repentance New Obedience are imputed to us for that Righteousness that justifies us and our Justification and inchoate Righteousness does enter and is the Infancy of Glory From hence the Justification of a Sinner by the Righteousness of God may come under a double Consideration It may be consider'd Precisely in itself or Complexly with its Antecedents and Consequents That which is Antecedent to it is Redemption and that from Damnation as that from Sin both being wrought without our doing any thing not so much says Ruiz as to give an Active Occasion towards it but wholly of Grace It is like that in regard to the Antecedents the Apostle speaks of the Freeness of our Justification so as he does Rom. 3.24 and the like places when otherwise he lets us know that without Conversion or a Call of Turning from Sin unto God no Man can be justified and saved Unto whom I send thee to turn them from Darkness to Light from the Power of Satan unto God that they may receive Forgiveness of Sins Acts 27.18 There is therefore the Antecedents the Constituents and Subsequents of this Righteousness of God and our Justification by it Redemption and Calling are Antecedents The Work of that Calling which is the Performance of the Condition and the Imputation of it for Righteousness the one being as it were the Matter and the other giving the Form to it are the Constituents Actual or Absolute Pardon and Life the Subsequents or Benefits of it This Distinction I would not omit before I go off because I would have none so stiff in theri own Opinions much less froward but that they may yield to others also something in theirs If Austin will place Justification in the Infusion of Grace I will grant it him as Antecedent to it If Mr. Wotton will place it in Pardon I will grant it him as Consequent to it or as the Special Benefit of it If the Assembly will place it in Pardon and the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness if they mean it Per modum Meriti and not In se I will grant it If Mr. Baxter will place it in a Personal Righteousness subservient to the Righteousness of Christ not formally made Ours but in the Effects that is as much as to say required in order to our having Impunity and Life as Comprehensive of all its Effects or Benefits I will grant it him as Constituent of it If Dr. Owen will be content tho' others differ from him so long as Remission of Sin Acceptance with God Right to Life are acknowledged all to be owing to the Righteousness of Christ and not the Merit of our Works I kiss Dr. Owen's Hand also Let this Righteousness of God for Justification of Life be taken in its Complex Consideration and we may all joyn in some Agreement in it tho' where it is Precisely taken every own will stand for his own Opinion I was long before I could come to this God accounting a Man righteous by the Law of Grace as having performed the Condition I always thought to be Justification and this Mr. Baxter granted me Pardon then I counted the Effect of this and therefore different from it besides that the Word methoughts would not allow them to be the same Pardon of Sin is not signified by the Word Justification in any place of Scritpure says Dr. Owen p. 173. The Word is never found so used either in the Hebrew or Greek Writers Sacred or Profane nor in our common Speech says Gattaker on Isa 5.23 who was in this yet a more competent Judge How these two Things being different as the Cause and Effect should enter the same Definition and be made one I could not devise or admit 'till I was taught by one Word in a Letter I receiv'd from Mr. Baxter Pardon says he is not that Justifications The Word That instructed me that Justification being a Forensical Term opposed to Accusation According to the Accusation such he counted Justification There are now two Charges as most say against the Sinner a Charge of the Law and a Charge of the Gospel The Charge of the Law is that we have broke
it and are liable to the Curse Gal. 3.10 Our Justification against this Charge is by an Acknowledgment of the Indictment but we plead a Stature made in the Year of our Lord Christ's Death when and where it is Enacted That whosoever believes and repents shall be freed from that Condemnation That is Our Plea in short is a Pardon upon Christ's Satisfaction But this Pardon being General and Conditional there arises the Charge of the Gospel This Charge is that we have not performed the Condition And our Justification against this Charge is by pleading Not Guilty for the Performance of the Evangelick Condition accepted through Mercy and Christ's Merits is our Righteousness as Not Guilty which is shewn before of this Charge of Non-performance Here De Re I agree with Mr. Baxter but De Nomine I am not satisfied yet to allow any other than one Justification Our Justification at Judgment Come ye blessed for when I was hungry ye fed me is plainly the Evangelick Condition performed and that is the Righteousness according to which the Sentence passes and as is the Justification of the Judge such must be that of the present Law whereby he judges and that is therefore our Evangelical Justification As for the Charge of the Law I count it can have no place at the Judgment of God for the Satisfaction of Christ and the Pardon upon it cannot there be brought in question If a Charge may be supposed the Satisfaction of Christ which is our Plea against it is not Ours or imputed to us for Ours not imputed In se I and Mr. Baxter hold and so cannot be here our Formal Righteousness without which a Legal Justification thereby arises not Besides this the Pardon granted upon Christ's Satisfaction is that Universal Conditional Remission which precedes Justification and when it comes to be Absolute or Actual to any one it is the Consequent of his Justification and must not be Justification itself as some make it I am not willing therefore to apprehend that because here are two Righteousnesses there are two Justifications for Christ's Righteousness as the Meritorious Cause of it goes into that Evangelical one and makes not Another But I would have one only Justification yet set forth in Scripture and spoken of by Divines under a double Consideration as Strictly and Largely taken Under a Strict and Precise Consideration I suppose nothing but what goes into the Form of it may be said of it Under a Large and Complex Consideration I allow the thing and benefit tho' Cause and Effect which was my heretofore Scruple may be comprized in our speaking of one and the same Justification I will press this Difficulty no further nor move any other but will break off with that Resolution I take up from Chemnicius and he by the Stile I suppose from Luther Quae dialectica subtilitate dissolvi non possunt piscatoria simplicitate praecidantur And as to these aforesaid Charges or Accusations I say this only that let as many be raised as any can raise they need not every one a Particular but are all discharg'd by one Universal Evangelical Justification FINIS COROLLARIVM IN the Year 1684 I wrote four or five Sheets entituled Two Steps toward obtaining my Liberty of Preaching and a Third Step after but both at that time without effect I will suppose a Man Episcopally Ordained and one that holds Communion with the Church Such a Man yet cannot have a Living or a Lecture we know without his Declaration of Assent and Consent and his Subscription according to the Canons with Conforming in all Things beside But there is nothing to hinder him the Preaching an Occasional Sermon Prayers being duly read in any Church only the want of a License to Preach Unto such a License in the Act of Vniformity is required his Reading the Thirty Nine Articles and Assent to them before the Bishop and nothing else A Canon need not be urged it were unmerciful when an Act connives The Act indeed as well as Canons requires more to the Preaching as a Lecturer or Beneficed Man but no more to a License to Preach The Uniformity Act requiring this is bound up with the Common Prayer and is made part of that Book In the Preface hereof there is a Clause to this Sence That if any Doubts shall arise about the Vnderstanding any Matter contained in the Book the Person shall resort to the Bishop or Archbishop and he shall resolve the same That the Articles are of various and doubtful Interpretation it is apparent by the Ministers of diverse Judgments some Arminians some Calvinists subscribing them and that with Allowance of the Church If then such a Man as before qualified shall make or set down his own Construction of every such Article as he scruples and then in his reading the Article read also his Sence of it and it be such as the Bishop allows to be Orthodox a License upon this Account Salva Conscientia may be had I cannot give an unfeigned Assent to these Articles all without a Liberty of Explication but with one I may And upon that Supposition there is the Eleventh Article Entituled Of the Justification of Man which concerns me in regard to this present Book We are accounted righteous before God only for the Merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Faith and not for our own Works or Deservings Wherefore that we are justified by Faith only is a wholesome Doctrine and very full of Comfort as is more largely expressed in the Homily of Justification Art 11. By the Words Faith only I understand what Paul means by Faith without Works that is Faith in opposition to Works that would make the Reward to be of Debt and not of Grace or to the Works of the Law Works which the Law requires to Justification which none have and if any be justified at all it must be therefore without them not in opposition to Repentance and Evangelical Obedience And though it be for Christ's sake or his Merits not Ours that he accounts us righteous yet is our Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience the Condition upon which he does it or rather the Righteousness itself which upon the Account of Christ's Deservings he accepts unto Life everlasting So I have it in these mentioned Sheets J. H. ERRATA PAge 9. l. 28. for First r. Fifth p. 11.21 for Meritory r. Meritoriè p. 14. l. 34. for its r. it with a Full-point p. 15. l. 32. for Sated r. Stated p. 18. l. 26. in the Margin for that r. by which p. 31. l. 32. for rearum r. reatum p. 27. l. 2. for Cause r. Cause An ADVERTISEMENT from the Bookseller THere are several Papers of Four or Five Sheets apiece written formerly by this Author called The Middle Way of Election of Redemption of Justification of the Covenants Law and Gospel of Perfection As also Peaceable Disquisitions which Treat Of the Natural and Spiritual Man of Praying by the Spirit of Preaching by Demonstration of it of Assurance of the Arminian Grace of the Possibility of Heathens Salvation of the Reconciliation of Paul and James of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness with other Incidental Matters One of which Middle Papers that of Justification was Reprinted two Years since with the Quotation of what concerns that Subject out of the other and since that One Sheet so called and his Six Sheets last Year called Pacification All which may be bound up together with this present Discourse for any that desires them In that Book called Pacification there is the Case of Non-Resistance and Passive-Obedience Stated and Resolved the Doctrine whereof Abjured in the two former Reigns is here in this King's Reign Recorded for a Memoriae Sacrum to those which are to come Whosoever hath those Six Sheets they are desired in Page 35. Line 20. to put in the word not which the Printer hath left out to the contradicting the Scope of the Book T. P.