appear lovely and beautiful as effects of a most wise contrivance for excellent ends Even so the Doctrine of Justification while handled and beheld only in this or that particular part of it remains comparatively obscure But when all which goes to the making up of the whole is put together in order and when it is discovered how one thing depends upon and answers another in it it will not be difficult at all to understand it And when the whole of Gods design in that way and method by which our Justification is brought about is laid open those things in it which have been apprehended by some not well to consist together but to bear hard upon one another will appear quite otherwise For then the grace of God the Righteousness of Christ and the personal Righteousness of him that is justified will appear not in opposition but in a lovely conjunction all operating in several respects to the same end The sense of these things hath I confess inclined me to offer at something of this nature in the ensuing discourse by way of essay Wherein I have endeavoured with what plainness I could to state and explain the nature and causes of our Justification and to shew how the Righteousness of Christ the Covenant of Grace Faith and God himself do both severally and joyntly operate to our Justification and how the grace of God is eminent in all And likewise to shew how that all that goes to our Justification is by the Grace of God founded on the Righteousness of Christ and immediately or remotely receives the vertue and efficacy of its operation from it in conjunction with Gods gracious ordination And particularly that out of this Righteousness of Christ and the Grace of God thereby doth arise the Covenant of Grace and from that Covenant the constitution of Faith for Righteousness and from that constitution Gods approving such for righteous which have that Faith and his adjudging them to be so For which cause our Blessed Saviour may well be said as he is to be made to us of God Righteousness These things will more fully appear in the discourse it self now before you to which I refer you for your more full satisfaction Hoping that the usefulness of what is thereby designed and endeavoured will so far appear as to stir up and engage some others to undertake the same work who may much better go through with it and compleat it than I have been able to do The Christians JUSTIFICATION STATED CHAP. I. Of the signification and use of the word Justification with a description of Justification it self THE design of the following discourse is to state the great Doctrin of Justification and so to represent it from the Holy Scriptures as that it may be adapted and fitted to the capacity of the meanest Christian that is inquisitive into a matter of that grand importance as his Justification before God is And as a guide herein I shall first enquire into the Notation and signification of the word Justification For the use of words being to convey to the mind the Idea and notion of things and the nature of them it is but reasonable to govern our selves in our notion of the nature of Justification by the signification of such words and phrases by which it is in Scripture exprest After this is done I shall enquire into the severals which operate to the producing this great effect Justification and how they do it By all which I hope any Christian of a very ordinary capacity shall be able to discern the true nature of justification what it is and in what it doth consist The word Justification in Scripture signifies either to make just or to approve as just or vindicate and adjudge as just or righteous The word is but sparingly used in Scripture as signifying to make just but another word more commonly which is Sanctification But to be made just is essentially or absolutely necessary to justification as we shall see afterward For God will not approve of or adjudge any man as just who is not so But about the more ordinary and common signification of the word I find that learned men are much of one mind and do conclude that the word generally in Scripture is used in a forensick or law sense and does imply a legal procedure in a Cause or with a person by a Judge and according to some law So the learned Dr. Hammond in his Annotations on Rom. 3.4 And so learned Mr. Tho. Gataker to name no more in the Assemblies Annotations on Isa 5.23 which I shall give you in his own words To justifie saith he is not to pardon as some would expound it in the doctrine of the Gospel for the word is never found so used either in the Hebrew or Greekwriters Sacred or prophane nor in our common speech Nor as it is a law-term doth it ever signifie to make just But to justifie in a legal way doth always signifie to defend or to deem as just and guiltless free from the offence wherewith the party called in question is charged To defend as just and so it is the office of an Advocate to deem as just and consequently assoil from guilt and so it is the part of a Judge As also in private carriages men are said to justifie others when they plead for them and avow their integrity and honesty against those that question it According to this usual sense and notion of the word when applied to God as Judge in justifying of men it signifies his approbation of such as are just in their Cause that is before him to be so his adjudging them to be righteous in the sense of that Lawby which they are tried Thus for instance we have it in King 8.31 32. If any man trespass against his neighbour and an oath be laid upon him to cause him to swear and the oath come before the altar in this house then hear thou in heaven and do and judge thy servants concerning the wicked to bring his way upon his head and justifying the righteous to give him according to his righteousness Where to justifie the righteous does not signifie to make them righteous but to appear for them in Judgment as those that are so and to determine for them accordingly To justifie the wicked in Scripture-phrase does not signifie to make them just but to approve of them and appear for them as if they were just Prov. 17.15 Exod. 23.7 Isa 5.23 And thus again to give some instances in the New Testament S. Paul saith I know nothing by my self yet am I not hereby justified but he that judgeth me is the Lord 1 Cor. 4.4 Where to be justified and to have God to judge for him signifies the same So likewise Rom. 2.13 Not the hearers of the law are just before God but the doers of the law shall be justified The meaning whereof is that not the hearers but the doers of the law shall be approved of by
another but by being Pardoned by virtue of Christs atonement and by virtue of the new Law of Grace which he hath obtained by his obedience we performing the condition on which Pardon is procured and promised which performance God according to his Grace in the Gospel counts to us for Righteousness 3. That Righteousness of Faith by which we are Justified qualifies us for the positive happiness and glory of the next world but so does not Remission of sin as such That operative Faith by which God Justifies us renews our nature and makes us inherently Righteous without which we cannot suppose that God would adjudg us Righteous without which neither can we so much as see the Kingdom of God or be capable of enjoying the heavenly state But now this renovation in our nature is not made by Remission of sin That makes a change in a mans state indeed but the change which is made in our nature by which we are made capable of the heavenly glory is by that Faith and the Righteousness of it by which we are Justified And therefore there is a great difference between the Righteousness of Justification and Remission of sin in this respect also By reason of which difference I cannot understand how it can be truly said That Justification by Remission of sin as some phrase it will stand us in as much stead before the Tribunal of God as Justification upon a perfect justice would do For if it could be suppposed as it cannot upon good ground that Remission of sin might be had without any inherent Righteousness in our nature yet we could not thereby be so much as capable of being partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light for which they are made meet by that change which is made in their nature through Faith which God in Justifying of us reckons to us for Righteousness 4. Pardon of sin as it does not qualifie our nature for the heavenly glory so neither does it at all entitle men to it as the Righteousness of Justification by Faith does We that forfeited the first right which man had to happiness by our Apostacy from God can now have no right or title to it but what God of his own Grace through Christ is pleased to give us or by gift or grant to make over to us And this right which he has given us depends partly upon a conditional promise of his and partly upon Gods adjudging us to have performed that condition mentioned in that promise Now God in his new Law of Grace upon account of what our Saviour hath done and suffered to obtain it hath made promise of eternal Life to us upon condition of our believing and obeying the Gospel Which condition being performed by us our initial right to eternal Life accrues to us from this promise of God founded in our Saviours Mediatory performance But then our compleat right to it accrues to us from a judicial act of God which is his adjudging us to have performed that condition on which eternal Life is promised The one is as a right in Law the other as a right by act of judgment grounded on Law Which judicial act of God is that by which he Justifies us as that Judg to whom it belongs to judg whether the terms of his own Law of Grace be performed or no before he confers the benefit promised therein And whenever he doth adjudg us to have performed those terms that judgment and determination of his for us gives us an immediate and compleat right and title to the heavenly happiness But now Remission of sin or impunity was never made the condition of the promise of heavenly glory nor is it mans act but Gods and so not capable of being made a condition of such a thing And therefore it cannot in virtue of any promise give us that which I call our initial right to the heavenly glory which right accrues to us by virtue of Gods promise upon our performance of the condition of it Nor can this Remission give us that immediate and complete Right to the heavenly glory which flows to us from Gods adjudging us to have performed the condition on which he hath promised it because this Remission is no condition of Gods promise to us nor act of our performing Here then is a manifest difference between Remission of sin and Justification in respect of the right we have by the one which we have not by the other to the heavenly glory Some have indeed argued that Pardon of sin will stand us in as much stead as to our restauration to happiness as a perfect legal Righteousness would have done to have continued us in it Because as they reason the punishment of loss is by Pardon taken off as well as the punishment of sense and that as by Pardon we are delivered from the one so by it we are also restored to our title to the other to what we lost and so to a title to eternal Life The force of which arguing depends upon a supposition which will not be granted nor as I conceive ever be proved And that is that if Adam and so his posterity had continued in their integrity they would thereby have had a right and title to the Celestial happiness and glory of the upper world Whereas St. Paul tells us that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God and that the first man was of the earth earththy 1 Cor. 15.47 50. So that Adam himself should he have continued in that perfect state in which he was created yet would not for all that have been capable of the Celestial glory unless he had put off flesh and blood or else should have had his body transformed from natural into spiritual Which whosoever affirms that he should will doubtless be wanting in his proofs It is far more probable that the design of Christs undertaking as Mediatour was to advance the nature of man to a more glorious perfection and happiness than that which was natural to him in pure nature He was made a little lower than the Angels though he was crowned with glory and honor Psal 8.5 But they that shall be accounted worthy to that other world and the resurrection from the dead are equal to the Angels Which cannot be meant in respect of immortality only for Adam who was made lower than they would have been equal to them in that had he never sinned Luke 20.35 36. But our blessed Saviour came that we should have life and that we should have it more abundantly a life surpassing that which was lost by the fall John 10.10 And he hath taught his Disciples and followers in hope of this Celestial glory to set more light by this world than perhaps Adam would have been obliged to had he never fallen and hath given several other precepts which perhaps transcend the natural Law it self as to what Adam was obliged to by it before his fall and all to qualifie them for a higher state
man to life as it does in conferring life upon him that hath that righteousness being otherwise a sinner So that we can no more truly say that we are not justified by a personal righteousness of Faith because we are justified by Grace and by Christ than we can say a man is not born again of the incorruptible seed of the Word because he is born of God To say as many have been wont to say that St. Paul renounced his own personal inherent Righteousness from having any thing to do in his Justification because he said that he desired to be found in Christ not having his own Righteousness which is of the Law is so far from proving that he did so as that the contrary is plainly his scope and intent in the place where those words of his are found It was only his own Righteousness which was by the Law and which he trusted in while he was a Pharisee which he here renounced when he became a Christian Which Righteousness is elsewhere called the Jews own Righteousness which they went about to establish as being ignorant of the Righteousness of God Which Righteousness of theirs and of St. Paul while a Pharisee stood in an opinion and conceit First that the legal Sacrifices the Blood of Bulls and of Goats did of themselves expiate and take away sin and that there was no need of the Blood of Christ to do it Secondly that an external Righteousness without an internal was all that was necessary to their Justification the circumcision of the flesh and in the letter without that which is of the heart and in the spirit Thirdly in an opinion that for God to approve of them and to justifie them as righteous upon this account was but a due debt not a matter of meer grace and favour Now Justification by the righteousness of the Law in this sense this Apostle does indeed not only here renounce in himself but also every where in his Epistles disputeth against as any matter of mens justification before God And when he became a Christian he desired no longer to be found in this righteousness which was of the Law but to be found in Christ as having that Righteousness which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness of God by Faith The which Righteousness of Faith is opposed to this Righteousness which was of the Law and does summarily consist in a firm belief and practice of those things which are contrary to those in which the Pharisaical Righteousness which was of the Law did consist As first in a belief that the Blood of Christ only does expiate sin Secondly in inward purity of heart by Faith as well as external Righteousness Thirdly in a hearty perswasion that it is meerly of grace and favour that God through Christ will accept this for righteousness and that pardon of sin and eternal life are promised upon this only condition And this is the Righteousness of Faith which this Apostle opposeth in his Epistles to the other Righteousness of the Law as the Righteousness by which men shall be justified and in which he himself desired to be found And this Righteousness of Faith is said to be of God not only for that it is of his working in us but also and more especially because it is of his meer grace and favour to ordain by the Gospel that this shall be reckoned to us for Righteousness and that we shall be approved of as Righteous if it be found in us and dealt withal as righteous not only in not being punished as sinners but on the contrary rewarded as righteous The other Righteousness by which St. Paul while a Pharisee and other Pharisaical Jews expected to be justified is said to be their own Righteousness not only because what it did consist of was wholly within their own power to perform without any supernatural assistance but also and especially because it was the true Righteousness only in their own opinion and of their own making but never of Gods appointing or ordaining When some good men heretofore did exclude all personal Righteousness of Faith from having any hand in our Justification for fear they should otherwise detract from the fulness and sufficiency of the Righteousness of Christ they little considered what a door they thereby opened for Libertinism to enter in among us as after experience shewed they did For many from that Doctrine thought themselves so righteous in the sight of God by the Righteousness of Christ imputed to them upon a speculative Faith as that they needed no other Righteousness and thought it a disparagement to the Righteousness of Christ for any to say they did They would at first pretend indeed that the sense of Christs love would in a way of gratitude produce a good life but abhorred it should be made necessary to our Justification This I my self had experience of above forty years ago which with their neglect of Christian Duties first brought me under suspicion concerning the Doctrine of the imputation of the Righteousness of Christ unto Justification otherwise than in the blessed effects of it At that time the pressing the necessity of Repentance Mortification and a sincere keeping of the Commandments of God begun to be called Legal preaching as the like is still counted but Moral preaching by some others After this the foresaid notion was improved to the breaking out of the grossest Antinomian and Ranting practices under pretence of magnifying Free Grace to the great dishonour of the Christian profession and the apparent hazard of mens Salvation Vpon the observation of all which some worthy men were stirred up to encounter by writing not only such abuses and miscarriages of men but also those Doctrines out of which they sprang In which they were opposed by some patrons of unsound Principles which hath since occasioned many Disputes about some points in the Doctrine of Justification In which Disputes many School-nicities have been agitated which the generality of Christians little understand and which the Scriptures themselves meddle not in By means whereof such have been puzled rather than edified by much of what of this nature hath been done whose edification yet they being by far the greater number ought to be endeavoured as well at least if not rather than the edification and satisfaction of those of more refined apprehensions All which things considered some more discourses than have been yet extant tending to state and explain from the Scriptures the whole business of our Justification and to level it to the understanding of Christians of ordinary capacities without incumbring it with disputable questions and arguments pro and con seems to me no more than in some sort is needful It happens in reference to the Doctrine of Justification as it doth with many dark providences of God in the world they are dark and obscure and to us seem unaccountable because we do not see from the beginning to the end of them but only a part which otherwise would
Dr. Hammond renders it thus But the mercy was by occasion of many offences unto Justification Agreeable to this reading is that note of Grotius upon the place in these words Occasion being taken from many sins and so is that of Piscator and Simplicius in these words Occasion being taken not only from the sin of Adam but also from the proper sins of all believers So that the sense of the place according to this rendering of the words seems to be to this effect That from the sad condition into which men were fallen not only by the one offence of Adam but also by their own many personal offences God took occasion to manifest his own Grace and Mercy through Christ to miserable men in giving and granting them new terms by which they might attain unto Justification or a being approved of by God as Righteous their many offences notwithstanding And this in Verse 17. is called the gift of Righteousness and in Verse 18. the free gift unto Justification of life through the Righteousness of one to wit Christ And accordingly the grant which God hath made us of being saved by Faith in Jesus Christ is said to be of Grace and to be the gift of God By Grace are ye saved through Faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God Ephes 2.8 Now according to this rendering of the words by all these great men of Learning there is not the least appearance of any such thing as that Justification is by Remission of sin None of those worthy persons abovementioned do say the free gift is of many offences but all of them say it is from many offences So that if we read it thus according to the Translation I first mentioned the free gift is unto Justification from many offences the sense will be this I conceive That through the free gift we are by Justification secured from suffering the desert of our many offences and is the same in sense with the interpretation of Acts 13.39 last suggested Where was shewed that though Remission of sin is by Justification that is a benefit accruing to us thereby yet we cannot therefore say that Justification is by Remission of sin The terms are not convertible we cannot so well say that Justification is by Remission of sin as we can that Remission of sin is by Justification The other Scripture which is much insisted on to prove Remission of sin is Justification or that Justification stands in Remission of sin is Rom. 4.6 7. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth Righteousness without works saying blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered In which words as it is argued Justification is described by Gods forgiving iniquity But then it is counter-argued that this description by David seems not to be a description of the Justification of the man to whom God imputeth Righteousness without works but a description of his happy state and condition in having his sins Pardoned St. Paul doth not say even as David describeth the Justification of the man to whom God imputeth Righteousness but the Blessedness of the man Now the blessedness of having sin Pardoned is a benefit consequent upon a mans believing and so of his being Justified by that belief for Pardon is promised but on that condition Acts 10.43 And the promise and the condition of the promise cannot be the same Which very consideration if there were no more were enough to shew that Justification is not described by Forgiveness of sin It appears at first sight that these words of the Psalmist were brought to prove somwhat said by St. Paul a little before And if they should be brought to prove that Faith is counted to a man for Righteousness which was the thing St. Paul had asserted in the next precedent Verse then they could not be brought to prove that Forgiveness of sin is counted to him for Righteousness for Faith and Forgiveness of sin are two different things By this it appears already that these words of David were not alledged to prove Justification to be by Remission of sin as it will further appear by and by To the end then we may the better understand for what purpose these words of David are here recited by St. Paul we will consider his words in the two next precedent Verses Now to him that worketh saith he is the reward not reckoned of Grace but of Debt Verse 4. In which words St. Paul seems to have stated the opinion of the Pharisaical Jews against whom he disputed They held as it seems that the reward to wit all the benefit all the happiness they expected from God to be due to them as a debt for their observing the Law of Moses They did not expect that their obedience should be accepted or counted to them for Righteousness for the sake of another and upon the account of the Death and Sacrifice of the Messias for they held that he when he should come should never die John 12.34 and that therefore their sin was not to be expiated by the Sacrifice of his death but by their own legal Sacrifices and that the blood of Bulls and Goats did take away sin Heb. 10.4 and that those Sacrifices with their other legal observances were of themselves their Righteousness and that upon account hereof Justification and Life were due to them in the nature of a debt in opposition to Grace and that the Gentiles were ungodly and uncapable of Righteousness and Justification until they were Proselytes to their way of worship This is that St. Paul calls their own Righteousness in opposition to that which is of God by Faith of Jesus Christ Phil. 3.9 By all which they rendred the death of Christ of none effect and Justification to be of Works and not of Grace as appears by Gal. 2.21 and 5.4 In Verse 5. St. Paul asserts the contrary to wit That to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his Faith is counted to him for Righteousness Which assertion of St. Paul if true proves the reward to be of Grace and not of Debt whether by Reward you understand only Justification or also the benefits subsequent to it For if God count such mens Faith for Righteousness which work not which have no such works as by which to reckon the reward to be of Debt and not of Grace yea such mens Faith for Righteousness which had been ungodly then the reward must needs be of Grace and not of Debt This being a self-evident truth That after a man by sin hath once made a forfeiture of all to God whatever good he after receives from him must needs be of Grace Which made St. Paul say All have sinned and come short of the glory of God being Justified freely by his Grace and that too through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus Rom. 3.23.24 These words of David then in Verse 6 7. seem to be