of Jesus Christ is meant Faith upon him that Christ is the object not the subject of it Not that Christ is he that believes but he on whom we believe So is this manner of speaking used elsewhere Gal. 2.16 Knowing that a man is justified by the Faith of Jesus Christ we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the Faith of Jesus Christ And so ver 20. I live by the Faith of the Son of God So in Acts 3.16 By Faith in his Name It is the same case and construction in the Greek as it is here in the Text and in the Galatians and might as well be rendred Faith of his Name You have the like Mark 11.22 Have Faith in God or as your Margins tell you Have the Faith of God It might as well be rendred here Faith in Jesus Christ as it is their Faith in God The Grammer and the meaning is the same in both places It is genitivus objecti not efficient is or subjecti It being then Faith on Christ let us next consider what this Faith is And I shall briefly touch on three things concerning it 1. The subject of Faith is the heart of a convinced broken-hearted humbled sinner Faith is seated and acted in the heart Rom. 10.10 VVith the heart man believeth unto Righteousness And it is the heart of a convinced contrite humbled Sinner Where there is not any conviction of Sin there is no Conviction of Righteousness For as the whole and well do not need so they do not see and feel themselves sick and wounded unto Death will not seek to a Physician nor commit themselves into his hands He that doth not see himself in danger of Death by the Avenger of Blood will not flee to Christ for refuge to lay hold upon him which is the work of Faith or that which the Soul doth in believing as the Apostle sets it forth Heb. 6.18 The very nature of Faith and the Acting of the Soul in it is such as doth imply and include a sight and sense of Sin and Misery and an over-powering practical lively heart-influencing Conviction of utter helplesness in a mans self and unworthiness to be helped by God In believing the Soul looks on it self as in a perishing Condition Luke 15.14 16 17 19. as a poor and needy Friendless and Fatherless Creature Hos 14.3 and betakes it self to Soveraign Grace and Mercy It believes that it may be justified Gal. 2.16 which implyes that it sees it self lyable to condemnation Yea it knows as the Apostle there speaks that men are not justified by the works of the Law that is in its believing it is under a particular and lively Conviction that by the works of the Law neither any other nor it self shall ever be justified and it is thereby influenced to seek to be justified by Christ in this way of believing Not but that after Faith and Pardon and a sense of it too there are deep humblings and meltings of God according to that promise Ezek. 16.61 63. and we see was in her Luke 7.38 Nevertheless a truth it is that Unhumbledness and Pride are inconsistent with true Faith Joh. 5.44 and so also is impenitency and hardness of Heart the Seed of the word of the Gospel will never take root and grow up in such an heart Matth. 21.32 and 13.20 21. 2. The object of Faith is Jesus Christ that is the anointed Saviour or the Name of Christ as 1 Joh. 3.23 and Joh. 1.12 that is Christ as made known and set forth and declared in the Gospel And in the Gospel he is set forth as the Ordinance and Servant of God for saving Sinners of the Sons of Men. Christ is the next and immediate object of Faith God is the ultimate Object of it For by him we come to God Heb. 7.25 and by him we do believe in God 1 Pet. 1.21 3. The hearts acting towards this object in its believing is most properly in a way of trust and dependence and affiance The Holy Ghost who is the Author and worker of Faith and who best knows the Nature of it doth in Scripture set it forth by great variety of expressions some proper some metaphorical Trusting and believing in are among the proper expressions whereby the Holy Ghost declares the Nature of Faith and the acting of the Heart therein towards Christ and God by him The former is used by him Eph. 1.12 13. Isa 50.10 and 26.3 4. and often elsewhere The latter is used Gen. 15.6 Joh. 1.12 and 6.29 and 14. 1. Gal. 2.16 2 Tim. 1.12 and in many other places There are also some Metaphorical Expressions used by the Holy Ghost to the same purpose And as they are in their Nature apt and fit to let in a Light of Understanding into our Minds and to guide them in their conceivings concerning the Nature of this Faith through which the Righteousness of Christ comes to be unto all and upon all that believe So the Holy Ghosts using them warrants us to use them in speaking of and describing Faith To give some instances Believing is called looking unto Christ Isa 45.22 and it implyes a looking to him with earnest desire and expectation For that expression in the Prophet is taken from that Ordinance in Moses Numb 21.8 where you find the Israelites directed when stung by the Fiery Serpents to took to the Brazen Serpent that they might not dye but live and be healed Christ shows us that himself was shadowed and prefigured by that Brazen Serpent John 3.14 and his death by the lifting of it up John 12.32 33. and accordingly by their looking to it was believing taught as Christ plainly intimates John 3.15 And therefore as an Israetite who felt himself stung by the Fiery Serpents and dying looked with earnestness of expectation to the Brazen Serpent in like manner doth the Heart of a convinced Sinner work towards Christ in believing Again Believing is called coming to Christ Matth. 11.28 John 6.37 44 45. for in ver 35. he had explained coming to him by believing on him But what manner of coming is it Is it a dead cold careless coming No it is a coming with appetite and affection as an hungry man comes to his Meat and a thirsty man to drink which also is Christs comparison there And thence elsewhere the same Spirit who is the worker of Faith in us and under whose hand the Soul is conducted and doth act in its believing calls it a fleeing unto Christ for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us Heb. 6.18 All the expression sets forth earnestness in the Heart in its believing For they are taken from the practise of one who finding himself in danger of Death from the Avenger of Blood fled unto the City of Refuge the Ordinance for which you may see Numb 35.13 15. or from the practice of a self-convicted self-condemned Criminal among the Jewes who fled to the Tabernacle and caught hold on the Horns
THE Righteousness of God THROUGH FAITH UPON All without Difference who believe In Two Sermons on Romans 3.22 By NATHANIEL MATHER Preacher of the Gospel LONDON Printed for Nathaniel Hiller at the Princes-Arms in Leaden-Hall-Street over against St. Mary Axe 1694. To the READER I Must acknowledge that when I was called to Preach in that Audience where these Sermons were delivered I had some Debates rolling in my Mind what kind of Subject I should pitch upon There were enow offered to my Thoughts wherein I might have more gratified or at least have less displeased our Neonomians as they are lately named but as truly and justly Semisocinians as the antient Church and all Posterity since hath called the off-spring of Pelagius his Heresie Semi-Pelagians But I saw with grief and detestation the Blessed Gospel of our Salvation craftily and insolently assaulted by them in the very Vitals and Fundamentals of it In publico discrimine omnis homo miles est Every Christian much more every Minister is set for the defence of the Gospel especially at such a time when the Truth labours under guileful and impetuous opposition I doubted my Quiet would be attempted and my Doctrine and Reputation would be angrily reflected on As to the last though I value it and believe I ought to do so yet I can truly say convictions that I ought to sacrifice both that and my Quiet to the service of the labouring Truth of God had their weight with me My Heart hath been long fixed in this Principle that Reputation is little to be valued save only so far as it may be of service unto Christ and if he have any use to make of it he will preserve it while I walk before him in Integrity With him I have thus left it and having so done my Heart is secure and at rest about it As to my Quiet I confess I do prize and love it as remembring Prov. 17.14 and 18.6 but to Maintain and Preach that Precious and Saving Truth which the Churches of Christ have been in possession of ever since the Reformation is not entring into contention especially when some abandon it and others indeavour to wrest it from us And there is a contending and that earnestly for the Faith once delivered to the Saints which is a Duty Besides I am not far from that place where the weary are at rest and the wicked cease from troubling the thoughts whereof I confess are sweeter to me because I have very sadning apprehensions of the portendency of that apostasie from the Truth which hath invaded so many of the rising Generation not among Conformists only but Dissenters also As to my Quiet I have this relief that it is not in the power of any mortal to interrupt or disturb my inward composedness of Spirit or to lay me under any law of unquietness within my self I know and am assured that a due exercise of Faith Meekness Self-denyedness and such like Graces will establish my Heart in a just and holy unconcernedness though such representations should still be made of me for these Sermons sake as to fill my Friends in other Lands to whom I am known with trouble and consternation I use the very words of a Letter wherein I am informed that such Reports have been sent even so far As to the Doctrine delivered in these Sermons it hath been of use to me for the direction and guidance of my Heart in transacting with God about Pardon and Acceptance to Eternal Life I hope it may be so unto others My Hope my Life my Salvation my All is therein I have not delivered any thing but what I know and am assured is according to the Eternal Truth of God and wherein I have going before me as great Lights as any that God in these latter Ages hath set up in his Church How little or rather nothing I have varied in what is Printed from what was delivered in Preaching I must leave to those that shall read and did hear them I have heard of two Passages that have been taxed Of them therefore I have in a short Postscript given a further account As to the Publishing of them in Print if the Doctrine delivered in them be the Truth of God as I believe it is I need not make any Apology Many that know me know my backwardness to appear in Print Nevertheless in thus Publishing these Sermons my Heart condemns me not knowing that I have therein only indeavoured to communicate in a more diffusive and induring way that Truth the Faith whereof I have received and wherein I have many Years lived and in which I hope and am perswaded I shall dye and which it is of concernment to have preserved and propagated The Blessing of him whose Truth it is go along therewith London this 14th of the 2d Month 1694. Nath. Mather ERRATA PAge 20. line 3. for in is read is in l. 9. a fine r. 1 John 2.1 l. 6. a fine f not p. 21. l. 7. a fine r. comprizing under them his Graces p. 25. l. 4. put the comma after is p. 26. l. 2. dele of p. 27. l. 4. a fine r. 2 Pet. 3.11 p. 31. f. namely r. only p. 36. l. 9. a fine f. John 15.19 r. John 15.9 p. 39. l. 14. their r. there l. 10. a fine f. they do not r. they who do not p. 42. l. 16. r. â— 28 p. 43. l. 7. f. might r. weight f. Psal 88.8 r. Psal 88.7 p. 59. l. 20. r. Phil. 3.12 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 IN the first five Chapters of this Epistle the Apostle sets himself to declare and clear up the great Doctrine of Justification And he first speaks to it Negatively shewing and evincing that by the deeds of the Law there shall no Flesh be justified in the sight of God which is the conclusion and sum of all his foregoing Discourse as you may see at the 20th Verse of this Chapter Having made out that neither Jew nor Gentile can ever be justified by the Deeds of the Law he declares affirmatively in the Verse before the Text and so onward how it is then that men may be Justified and he shews that it is by the righteousness of God manifested without the Law yet witnessed to by the Law and by the prophets that is by the Books of Moses and the rest of the Old Testament But how come men to be justified by this Righteousness manifested without the Law and thus witnessed unto This the Apostle declares in the words of the Text telling us that this righteousness is through faith upon all that beleeve and that without difference There is no need in order to what I intend to say any thing for explaining of the meaning of any of the words of the Text. The Doctrine which I design to speak to from them is plain and obvious and it is
this Doctrine There is a righteousness of God which through faith of Jesus Christ is without difference unto all and upon all who believe Here are these six things which offer themselves to be spoken unto for clearing this Doctrine and making way for the Application of it 1. What Righteousness is this and why is it called the Righteousness of God 2. How is it upon those that believe 3. What is the meaning and import here of that Expression without Difference 4. What is this Faith of Jesus Christ and why is it so called 5. What reference has Faith unto this Righteousness's being unto and upon Believers 6. How comes all this about and whence is it that there is this Righteousness provided and that it is through Faith upon all without difference which believe Quest 1. What Righteousness is this and why is it called the Righteousness of God Answ To have this matter rightly stated in our thoughts is very useful and needful both for the direction guiding and fixing of our Faith to its proper Object in its acting and exercise and also for the establishing of our Minds in the Truth of God in this Point lest darkness and mistakes herein should occasion our stumbling and the overturning of our Faith I shall therefore proceed step by step and deliver my self about it in five Propositions in which put together I shall indeavour a clear and just stating and declaration of this Matter Proposition I. This Righteousness is the Righteousness of Christ and not our own So the Apostle useth those Expressions setting our own Righteousness in Opposition to this Righteousness Phil. 3.9 though there be a sense wherein this Righteousness may be said to be ours When I say it is the Righteousness or Christ I mean it is the Righteousness whereof Christ is the original first and native Subject it is the Righteousness which he brought in as the word is Dan. 9.24 a Phrase taken from the Old Testament Ordinance wherein it was commanded that the Priest should carry the Blood of the Sacrifice which was shed at the Altar of Brass without the Tabernacle into the Holy of Holies and there present it unto God And this Righteousness of Christ is justly called the Righteousness of God both because it is a Righteousness of Gods ordaining and providing or devising as her word is speaking of this very thing 2 Sam. 14.14 and also because Christ whose it is primitively and originally is by Nature God over all blessed for ever And I think the Apostle delights to set forth this Righteousness by that Epithet that it is Gods and of God the more to commend it to our Consciences and Hearts as that which beyond all comparison is to be preferred before and rather chosen by us to stand in than that Righteousness which he calls our own The best of our own Righteousness is inherent in us or wrought out by us we are the original Subjects of it though it be in us from God and by his Grace But this Righteousness of Christ as it is called the Righteousness of God in another Sense and on another ground than our own Righteousness can be said to be Gods or of him so this Phrase is used of it for this end namely to denote such a transcendent Excellency in it it is an usual Hebraism to add the Epithet of God to set forth a surpassingness in things thus we read of the Wrestlings of God the Mountains of God the Cedars of God that in comparison of and in competition with this Righteousness the Righteousness of Men and Angels is to be despised and abhorred by us Now that this Righteousness in the Text is the Righteousness of Christ all the Circumstances of the Text do evince every thing which is here said of this Righteousness agreeing to the Righteousness of Christ which is brought in by him for us It is a Righteousness of God it is manifested without the Law for the Law that is the Covenant of Works tells us nothing of it yet it is witnessed unto by the Law and the Prophets and though it was heard of in the Old Testament times yet it was veiled under many shadows then but now in the days of the New Testament it is very clearly revealed and manifested It is a Righteousness which is unto all and upon all without difference who do believe and the way of its being on them is through Faith It is that Righteousness in which we stand justified freely of Grace it is that Righteousness which contains a price of Redemption and which hath Propitiation or Atonement in it and whereof the Blood of Christ is a part all which are true of the Righteousness of Christ and of no other and lastly it is either the Righteousness of Christ or our own the Scripture mentions no other Righteousness that is upon us but one of these But it is not our own Righteousness for our own Righteousness consisting in our Conformity to the Law that being to us the Rule of Righteousness we should then be justified by the deeds of the Law which the Apostle here tells us no Flesh shall for by the Law is the knowledge of Sin Proposition II. This Righteousness of Christ which through Faith is upon all that believe is the Mediatory Righteousness of Christ viz. That Righteousness which he as Mediator doth bring in for us and present unto God and therefore in which he acts as Mediator between God and us I mention this because I would set by and seclude the Essential Righteousness of Christ from being any part of this Righteousness which is upon us by Faith By his Essential Righteousness I mean that perfection of the Divine Nature which we commonly do also call Holiness and Justice and this belongs to Christ as he is God co-equal with the Father and the Holy Ghost being one of the blessed Perfections of the Divine Essence But this Righteousness cannot be said to be upon us through Faith For then we might be said to be justified by the Righteousness of the Father and of the Holy Ghost as we are by the Righteousness of Christ Atonement or Reconciliation with God is not made for us by this Essential Righteousness of Christ nor is it brought in before God for us nor are we said to have it nor do we stand accepted in it nor is it imputed to us all which the Scripture speaks of this Righteousness of Christ in the Text. I conclude therefore it not being the Essential Righteousness of Christ as God it is his Mediatorial Righteousness that Righteousness which Christ as Mediator and by Virtue of his being clothed with that Office doth bring in before God for us Proposition III. It is that part of Christs Mediatorial Righteousness which belongs to his Priestly Office and is brought in by him as a Priest Christ is Righteous as a Prophet and as a King and that for us that is for our good and benefit But this Righteousness of his
those visible lower Heavens Heb. 4.14 and ascended far above them all Eph. 4.10 and this he did as a Priest though not only as a Priest for it was prefigured and foretold by the Priests going daily from the Altar of Brass which stood without the Temple up unto the Altar of Gold for Incense which stood within the Sanctuary before the Vayl and by the High Priests going once a year in the great day of Atonement up from the Brazen Altar before the door with the Blood of his Sacrifice and with Incense also into the Holy of Holies unto the Mercy-Seat But Christ Ascension or going to Heaven is not a part of this righteousness nor upon us through Faith as this righteousness is Again to give another instance Christ doth intercede and in his so doing he fulfils the Law of his Priestly Office For it was Typified by the Priests offering up Incense and by his bearing the Names of the Twelve Tribes on his Shoulders and on his Breast-plate But the Intercession of Christ cannot be said to be any part of this righteousness which is here said to be upon us Though it be of precious and effectual avail for us and doth procure all our saying Mercies yet it is not imputed to us it is no part of his Suretiship-Righteousness which he hath brought in for us before God Proposition V. This Suretiship-Righteousness of Christ which is through Faith upon Believers is his perfect Conformity to the Moral Law in all that which the Justice of God did by virtue thereof demand in behalf of the Elect from Christ as their Surety that they might not onely in a way of Grace but in a way of Justice be brought to that Eternal Blessedness and Glory whereto God in his infinite love had appointed them The ground of Christs bringing in this righteousness is his being our Surety So he is made by God the Father and by his own undertaking in that Covenant between God and him was he constituted a Surety So he is called expresly Heb. 7.22 and the thing wherein Suretiship doth consist is abundantly affirmed of him in the Scripture Some indeed who would not be accounted Socinians wrangle against and reject this Counsel of God against themselves and thence would have it understood either metaphorically So Trum. gr propit pag. 88 100. or of his being Gods Surety to us to assure to us his performance of his Promises See Mr. B. Script Gosp def p. 76 78. But the thing is plain He who is obliged to pay anothers Debt or any part of it is properly and in strictness his Surety Now so it is between Christ and us he was obliged to pay our Debt and hath done it accordingly His name was put in into the original bond in which we by the Law and Covenant of our creation were bound Herein as God hath in his Infinite Love and Grace consulted well for us so he hath acted according to his own blessed Supremacy and adorable Wisdom without any the least impeachment of his Justice or his Truth in his Law For though the Law name onely us and do directly firstly and immediately bind us as the principal Debtors yet God in substituting his Son to be our Surety doth not in the least recede from his own Truth or from the equity and justice of the Law For as in Contracts between man and man the end and intendment is that the debt be paid whether by the original Debtor himself who contracted it or by another for him it is all one as to the rights of the Creditor they are justly preserved and provided for either way So it is here The highest end and main intendment of the Law is the preserving and securing unto God the honour of his Supremacy Wisdom Holiness and Justice And this is not departed from but provided for and pursued and that with much advantage unto Gods glory as well as our good in his constituting Christ our Surety And therefore in Gods calling Christ unto the work of bringing in this righteousness for us he doth neither revoke nor make void the Law nor recede from his own immutable Truth and Holiness shining in it but establisheth it as the Apostle declares Rom. 3.25 26 31. The rule of this righteousness by which it is measured is the Moral Law and the demands of the Justice of God in our behalf according to it Hence God by this righteousness of Christ doth magnifie his Law and make it Honourable as Isa 42.21 When I say the Moral Law is the rule of this righteousness of Christ I would not be understood as excluding his observing the Ceremonial Ordinances from being a part of his Righteousness It is of Moral Obligation that the positive Ordinances of God should be observed and Christ himself speaks of his observing that positive Ordinance of Baptism as a thing that was incumbent on him that he might fulfill all righteousness Matth. 3.15 The end of this Suretiship-righteousness of Christ is with reference to us that we might and its attainment is that we must and shall be brought in a way wherein Justice as well as Grace is glorified unto that blessedness to which God in his Infinite Love hath fore-appointed us Hence it appears that Electing Love is not the effect or fruit of this righteousness but is indeed the cause and spring of it Election is not procured by it but the bringing in of this righteousness for us is ordained by the Electing Love of God to us So the Scripture speaks Joh. 3.16 and 1 Joh. 4.9 10. God in his Electing us appointed us unto an higher bliss and glory than was proposed to the first Adam in his Covenant or than he could ever have brought his Seed unto He was of the Earth Earthly Christ is the Lord from Heaven 1 Cor. 15. and the Elect are appointed to be married to the Son of God made members of him and co-heirs with him and to be Sons of God as in Christ their Head to whom they are predestinated to be conformed in their Dignities and Priviledges as well as in their qualities spiritual Principles and the frame of their Hearts Rom. 8.29 They are to judge the World yea to judge Angels at the great day 1 Cor. 6.2 3. and in the mean time while they are here they are to be served and ministred unto by them Heb. 1.14 And at last there will be a day when the love wherewith the Father hath loved Christ shall appear to be in them and Christ in them and the World shall know that the Father hath loved them as he hath loved Christ Joh. 17.23 26. These are things higher than Adam or his Covenant would have brought them unto Yet unto these things must they be brought in a way wherein not onely Grace but Justice also shall shine forth and be glorified And therefore God in setting a Crown of Glory on their heads exerts his Justice as well as his Grace his righteousness as well as
So the Apostle declares Rom. 5.2 3 11. We rejoyce or glory in hope of the glory of God and not only so but we glory in tribulations also And he comes over with that word again ver 11. saying and not only so but we glory in God 't is the same word in the Greek in all the three Verses though differently rendred in our Translation How do they thus glory in God 'T is through Jesus Christ who hath brougâ—t in this righteousness for them and by whose Death they were when Enemies reconciled to God and by whom they have received that Atonement They do glory before God in him only in whom they are and who is of God made righteousness unto them 1 Cor. 1.30 31. and in the unchangeableness of the Love of God towards them in Christ they do triumph even while they have before their eyes their own guiltiness in themselves and how much matter for Eternal condemnation there is in them for it is upon Christ's not being spared or abated any thing but being delivered up and dying and God's justifying all which plainly speak them in themselves obnoxious to condemnation and worthy of Death upon these things it is that the Apostle bottoms that challenge and raiseth that triumphant persuasion and Song of assurance which he there uttereth in the Name of all Believers Rom. 8.32 33 34 35 38 39. Believers have given them beauty for ashes the oyl of joy for mourning the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness and they do greatly rejoyce in the Lord even in the Lord who was angry with them and their Souls are joyful in their God whom they know they have sinned against But how comes this to pass Is it because their sins are through tract of time out of Gods thoughts and Memory No a thousand years are with him but as one day He is an Eternal God and they are as fresh and present before him as if they were just then in committing Is it because God thinks better of their sins than formerly he did when he frown'd upon them and wrote bitter things against them No their sins are as distasteful to him as much hated by him as ever they were nor will he ever to Eternity have a better thought of any of them Is it because Believers are become more vain and senseless and slightly-spirited than they were in those former days of bitterness and anguish No verily they have more of the heart of Flesh than they then had and there is in them now a deeper sense of the evil of sin and a deeper work of the Spirit of Humiliation and more thorow thawings and meltings of heart before the face of God then ever Whence is it then and how comes it to pass that Believers are made even in the view of their own endless sin and guiltiness yet to triumph and rejoyce with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory It is hence God hath cloathed them with the Garments of Salvation he hath covered them with the robe of Righteousness as the Prophet speaks Isa 61.10 This righteousness of Christ is upon them and thence they have the consolations of God delighting their Souls and abounding in them Lastly There are not only such great and precious things injoyed by Believers while here but there are also things high and glorious laid up and reserved for them hereafter when they shall be here no more There shall be a Glory revealed in them far beyond all compare with any of the afflictions that they meet with in this World Rom. 8.18 They are now indeed the Sons of God and that is such manner of Love and so great that Men and Angels may stand and gaze and wonder at it But though now already they be thus loved nevertheless it doth not yet appear what they shall be Only we know that when the only begotten of God the Prince of Life and Lord of Glory shall appear then shall they appear with him in Glory and they shall see him as he is and they shall be made like him even these vile Bodies shall by him be fashioned like his own Glorious Body Colos 3.4 1 Joh. 3.1 2. Phil. 3.21 And in that day the world shall see and know and they themselves shall everlastingly feel that Christ is in his Father and they in Christ and he in them Joh. 14.20 And that both Christ and the Father too have loved them as the Father hath loved Christ and that very lo e wherewith the Father hath loved Christ himself shall be in them for ever John 15.19 Joh. 17.23 26. But now if you ask as she sometimes did concerning another great work of love and wonder Luke 1.34 How can these things ever be seeing they are such sinful such guilty such vile and loathsome and hateful Creatures in themselves This Text this Doctrine answers all in this one word The righteousness of Christ is through Faith unto them all and upon them all without difference who do believe Let your hearts answer and eccho back as Maâ—ries there did ver 38 45. Behold the handmaid of the Lord be it to me according to thy word Stagger not you at these great things as incredible as impossible ever to be done for you who are so ashamed of and do so exceedingly abhor your selves and who are worthy of nothing but to be rejected and abhorred of God eternally but believe take them in by Faith and by Faith receive the gift of this righteousness and then there shall most assuredly be a performance unto you even unto you of those things that have been told you from the Lord. ROM iii. 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 THE Point of Doctrine observed from these words you may remember was to this purpose Doctrine There is a Righteousness of God which is by Faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all without difference who do believe Six things have been proposed to be spoken to for the clearing up of the Doctrine viz. 1. What is this Righteousness of God and why so called 2 How it is unto and upon all that believe 3. What is the import and meaning of that word without difference 4. What is this Faith of Jesus Christ 5. What reference hath this faith unto this Righteousness being on Believers 6. Whence is all this and how comes this about Of these particulars I have already gone through the three former and know not any need either to retract or to explain further what was then delivered so shall it go with your Souls so will God deal with every one of you as you receive or reject those Truths of his That which is now before me is those other three remaining particulars for the clearing up of the Doctrine and the further application of it And hereto I now address my self Q. 4. VVhat is this Faith of Jesus Christ Answ By Faith
for our believing saith he not by way of Merit not of Debt yet in way of reward Another who speaks clearly and less covertly saith expresly that God justifies and saves none but for their believing And another who searched and saw as far as either of them and speaks out saith plainly that we are Pardon'd Justified and Adopted to Eternal Life as a reward to Believers for their Faith and Obedience And withal tells us in the same Book that Reward and Merit are Relatives so as that wherever there is Reward following there Merit went before and that there is no Reward but it is a Reward of Merit 'T is true indeed he will have the Merit of our repenting and believing but a subordinate Merit and Christ's the principal But what is this better than the old Popish Notion that Christ Merited that we might Merit and we Merit in the virtue of his Blood and by Gods Grace And indeed he expresly owns this Tenet of theirs But surely this is another Gospel that we are pardoned justified adopted and vested in the Priviledges of the New Covenant Estate as a reward of or for our believing repenting or new obedience and a Doctrine grosser than many Learned Papists hold as great Merit-mongers as they are For they insist upon it as one condition requisite unto Merit that the Person Meriting the Reward must first be in a State of Grace and Favour with God and therefore Justification and Adoption cannot be Merited by us nor are conferred upon us as a reward of any thing that we do Yea methinks it is a very pernicious and Soul-destroying Error if there be or ever have been any such in the World For if a Mans Heart be influenced by it and moulded according to it in all his treating with God and applications to him for pardon of Sin and Justification and adoption he is wholly led aside quite off from the way of the Gospel and it is utterly impossible he should ever truely believe For Faith receives and looks for Union to Christ interest in this righteousness of his pardon of Sin Justification and Adoption not as a reward for or of any thing that we do but meerly of Free Grace and wholly for the sake of Christ and his righteousness I conclude therefore that though this Word Condition may be used and is so by some in a sound sense and with a good meaning concerning Faith and its reference to the righteousness of Christ being upon us yet it is neither convenient nor safe For it may occasion an unhappy stumbling and a Soul-ruining mistake And therefore I cannot but joyn with that great Divine Dr. Tho. Goodwin on Eph. 2. Serm. 22. p. 301. who wisheth it were laid aside and wholly disused because there is danger in it or at least if men be impotently fond of the word that it were both more soundly meant and better explained than it is by our present Contenders for it 3. The generality of all those that own the righteousness of Christ being upon us as that wherein we stand justified have used to express the influence of Faith thereunto by that word Instrument So the Westminster Assembly do both in their Confession and in their Catechism Nor have I seen any thing alledged against expressing it by that word that amounts to any more but that the word is not strictly and precisely proper in the same sense wherein it is used in other cases which for my part I will easily grant But what then Ars posterior prioris utitur operâ Artes in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concrescunt We must of necessity and are warranted by the practise of the Holy Ghost to use Figures and Tropes in speaking of and declaring the Truths of God It is al 's readily granted that the word instrument is not found in Scripture used matter But yet for all that it may be a word of the Holy Ghosts Teaching for it is suited and apt to declare and let in into our Minds the true Notion and conception of what the Scripture declares to be the reference of Faith unto our Justification The Scripture saith it is by and through and of Faith yea it saith that God justifies us by Faith and through Faith I know no word that doth so well express the work and use of Faith in this matter which the Holy Ghost sets forth by receiving Joh. 1.11 12. Rom. 5.11 17. where we are said to receive Christ and to receive his Righteousness and the Atonement made thereby An expression that speaks both our having it or being possessed of it and the means or way on our part wherein it is effected or brought about viz. that it is by and in such a like acting of our Hearts towards Christ and his Righteousness as answers the work of the Hand in taking and receiving a corporeal thing offer'd to us and by our taking it made ours For my part as on the one hand I would not be needlesly tenacious of a word where we can as well retain and express the Truth without it so on the other hand I cannot but observe that all those even to a Man not one as far as I remember to be excepted who quarrel with that word instrument and wrangle to bring in the word condition in this business of our Justification and Christs Righteousness being upon us do labour under that Covert to bring in withal a very weighty and momentous alteration in the substance of the Doctrine of the Gospel For they would also bring in other things viz. Repentance and Love and new Obedience as Conditions of our Justification as well as Faith and as the Righteousness which is imputed to us and wherein we stand And they are generally for a conditional Redemption also and many of them for a conditional Election too 4. I shall therefore waving those dissatisfying words set before you what I conceive to be the Truth of God in this matter briefly in a few Propositions concerning the reference that Faith hath unto the Righteousness of Christ being upon us Onely premising two things First That I am speaking of possession or actual injoyment of this righteousness of Christ not of right or title to it Right and Possession are different things and therefore things of a different Nature and may be one without the other Rutherf of the Covenants p. 231 232. Faith hath no influence no not so much as in a way of instrumentality to confer upon us a right and title to Christs Righteousness all the influence that Faith hath in this matter is onely unto our actual Possession of it which the Holy Ghost calls our having it Phil. 3.9 and here in the Text its being upon us Secondly This Possession or having this Righteousness of Christ the reference of Faith whereunto I am speaking of is that having it which is unto Justification of Life and that as the next and immediate effect of this Righteousness being thus upon us It is having
certain perpetuity of a Believers State and the ground thereof The Righteousness of Christ is upon him through Faith His Estate therefore is not cannot be undecided and in suspense They who deny or consider not that this Righteousness of Christ is through Faith upon all that believe and look only to the falseness and slipperiness of our hearts and either imagin some other way then through Faith for its being upon us or hold that we stand not in it but in our own Obedience or Faith as our Righteousness before God it is no marvel if they be for Believers falling away from Grace Their Darkness and Error in those other great Principles of the Gospel naturally leads and betrays them to this uncomfortable unevangelical and racking Error also that a Believers State is in suspense and undecided But 't is a plain case They upon whom the Righteousness of Christ is they are not in a State of suspense their State is not undecided But so it is with all that believe It is true indeed if Believers stood in their own Obedience and in their persevering therein so as to have their State depend on them it might well be uncertain and must be in suspense and undecided till their last breath But their continuance in Obedience and the not failing of their Faith is one of the Priviledges of their Estate and the Effect or Fruit of their having this Righteousness of Christ upon them and not the means or cause thereof But it may be you will ask if it be not in suspense and undecided where is it decided I answer It is not always decided in their own Consciences they may possibly be in the dark about it and wofully tossed with weary fluctuations between hope and fear concerning their own Estate Neither do I mean that it is decided before Men. The work and walk of a true Believer may possibly under the prevailing of Corruption and Temptation and under Gods Dereliction be such as to make him look in the Eyes of Men like a graceless Cast-away Nor is it so publickly and so solemnly decided before all the World of Men and Angels as it shall be at the great Day But yet decided it is and put out of suspense Where In the Court of Heaven where God sits as a Judge passing Sentence concerning the Spiritual Estate of all Men. I mean his word his written word that 's the Court of Heaven there are Men condemned and there they are justifyed in the word God sits as a Judge pronouncing and passing Sentence concerning Mens Estates There he pronounceth a Sentence of Condemnation upon all that are out of Christ and there he pronounceth a Sentence of Justification unto all and upon all that are in Christ by Faith This I mean by the Court of Heaven We should take heed in this matter of having our thoughts vanish into Airy Speculations and Imaginations of I know not what Voices and Proclamations made in Heaven in the hearing of Saints and Angels just as there is here on Earth among Men when Persons arraigned are acquitted The Scripture tells us not of any such thing though it tells us indeed there is Joy in Heaven over a Sinner that repents and though it be made known to Angels when the Estate of an Elect here below is changed yet this is not Gods justifying of him but his revealing to them his being justified Gods justifying us is in and by his word what the Word speaks God speaks and there is the Estate of every one that believes in Christ put out of suspense for ever and immutably and eternally decided For there is an Unchangeable Everlasting Constitution that the Righteousness of Christ is and shall be upon every one that believeth in him Now he with whom God is immutably and everlastingly well-pleased his State certainly is not in suspence and undecided But so is God pleased in Christ with every one that is in him by Faith for this Righteousness of Christ is unto and upon every Believer USE 2. This Doctrine speaks Conviction unto all that are in their Vnbelief You may here see you should here read that your Estate is wretched and woful for the Righteousness of Christ is not upon you it is only upon those who do believe and upon none else And it is upon them through Faith but you are without Faith and therefore have not this Righteousness of Christ upon you And if his Righteousness be not upon you the Wrath of God and the Curse of the Law even of the violated broken Law are upon you Gal. 3 10. For if this Righteousness of Christ be not upon you your Sins are upon you the guilt of them all is upon you As it is said of those Tyrants and Terrors in the Land of the Living in their day that they lay down in their Graves with their Iniquities upon their Bones Ezek. 32.27 So it must be said of you and it should be believed by you of you selves that you walk up and down among the Living with all your Iniquities upon you and if you dye in this Faithless Condition your Souls shall go down to Hell with all the uncircumcised and wicked of the World and the guilt of your Iniquities will be upon you for ever and ever And it is very fearful and overwhelming guilt that is upon you For there is the guilt of innumerable actual sins of thy own perpetration in Deed in Word in Thought and some of them are hainous and amazing Ask thy Conscience else And there is upon thee moreover the guilt of a depraved defiled Nature by that exceeding sinful sin which dwelleth in thee a sort of sin that hath a fulness of evil in it and excessive madness of heart Eccles 9.3 it hath in it Infidelity and Atheisme and Blasphemy and Contempt of God and Enmity a gainst him and also all the flagitious atrocious wickedness against the second Table that ever was committed by any of the Children of Men and moreover all that audaciousness and outrage which ever broke forth in any of the Sons of Belial in their sinning Such an one art thou in thy Heart and Nature before God and therefore in his judgment and his judgment is according to truth guilty before him concerning all these things though perhaps thou hast never felt many of them stirring in thy bosom And moreover there is upon thee the guilt of thy first Fathers sinning and disobedience when he turned Rebel against God thou wast involved in that woful deed of his and guilt and condemnation is upon the thereby Rom. 5.18 19. and from that sin of thy first Father thou canst never be discharged and justified unless this Righteousness of Christ be upon thee through Faith Isa 43.27 And lastly over and above the guilt of all these sins there is also upon thee the guilt of disobeying the Gospel in refusing and despising this Righteousness of Christ tender'd and brought near unto thee when thou art in such a