Doctrine and that which would so easily solve this difficulty and answer this objection as both of them are by some pretended certainly neither his wisdom nor his care of the Church under the conduct of the infallible Spirit would have suffered him to omit this reply were it consistent with the truth which he had delivered But he is so far from any such Plea that when the most unavoidable occasion was administred unto it he not only waves any mention of it but in its stead affirms that which plainly evidenceth that he allowed not of it See Eph. 2.9 10. Having positively excluded Works from our Justification not of Works least any man should boast it being natural thereon to enquire to what end do Works serve or is there any necessity of them instead of a distinction of Works legal and Evangelical in order unto our Justification he asserts the necessity of the later on other Grounds Reasons and Motives manifesting that they were those in particular which he excluded as we have seen in the consideration of the place Wherefore that we may not forsake his pattern and example in the same cause seeing he was Wiser and Holier knew more of the mind of God and had more zeal for personal Righteousness and Holiness in the Church than we all if we are pressed a Thousand times with this objection we shall never seek to deliver our selves from it by answering that we allow these things to be the condition or causes of our Justification or the matter of our Righteousness before God seeing he would not so do Secondly we may observe that in his answer unto this objection whether expresly mentioned or tacitly obviated he insisteth not any where upon the common principle of moral Duties but on those motives and reasons of Holiness Obedience good works alone which are peculiar unto Believers For the question was not whether all mankind were obliged unto Obedience unto God and the Duties thereof of by the moral Law But whether there were an Obligation from the Gospel upon Believers unto Righteousness Holiness and good Works such as was suited to affect and constrain their minds unto them Nor will we admit of any other state of the question but this only whether upon the supposition of our gratuitous justification through the imputation of the Righteousness of Christ there are in the Gospel grounds reasons and motives making necessary and efficaciously influencing the minds of Believers unto Obedience and good Works for those who are not Believers we have nothing to do with them in this matter nor do plead that Evangelical grounds and motives are suited or effectual to work them unto Obedience yea we know the contrary and that they are apt both to despise them and abuse them See I Cor. 1.23 24. 2 Cor. 4.4 such persons are under the Law and there we leave them unto the Authority of God in the moral Law But that the Apostle doth confine his enquiry unto Believers is evident in every place wherein he maketh mention of it Rom. 6.2 3. How shall we that are dead unto sin live any longer therein Know ye not that so many of us as were Baptized into Jesus Christ c. Eph. 2.10 For we are the workmanship of God created in Christ Jesus unto good Works Wherefore we shall not at all contend what cogency unto duties of Holiness there is in Gospel motives and reasons unto the minds of Vnbelievers whatever may be the truth in that case But what is their power force and efficacy towards them that truly believe Thirdly The answers which the Apostle returns positively unto this objection wherein he declares the necessity nature ends and use of Evangelical Righteousness and good Works are large and many comprehensive of a great part of the Doctrine of the Gospel I shall only mention the heads of some of them which are the same that we plead in the vindication of the same truth 1. He pleads the Ordination of God God hath before ordained that we should walk in them Eph. 2.10 God hath designed in the disposal of the order of the causes of Salvation that those who believe in Christ should live in walk in abound in good Works and all Duties of Obedience unto God To this end are Precepts Directions Motives and Encouragements every where multiplied in the Scripture Wherefore we say that good Works and that as they include the gradual progressive Renovation of our natures our growth and increase in grace with fruitfulness in our lives are necessary from the Ordination of God from his will and command And what need there any further dispute about the necessity of good Works among them that know what it is to believe or what respect there is in the Souls and Consciences of Believers unto the commands of God But what force say some is in this Command or Ordination of God when notwithstanding it and if we do not apply our selves unto Obedience we shall be justified by the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ and so may be saved without them I say 1 As was before observed that it is Believers alone concerning whom this enquiry is made and there is none of them but will judge this a most unreasonable and senseless objection as that which ariseth from an utter ignorance of their state and relation unto God To suppose that the minds of Believers are not as much and as effectually influenced with the Authority and Commands of God unto Duty and Obedience as if they were all given in order unto their Justification is to consider neither what Faith is nor what it is to be a Believer nor what is the Relation that we stand in unto God by Faith in Christ Jesus nor what are the Arguments or motives wherewith the minds of such persons are principally affected and constrained This is the Answer which the Apostle gives at large unto this Exception Rom. 6.2 3. 2 The whole fallacy of this Exception is 1 In separating the things that God hath made inseparable These are our Justification and our Sanctification To suppose that the one of these may be without the other is to overthrow the whole Gospel 2 In compounding those things that are distinct namely Justification and eternal actual Salvation the respect of Works and Obedience being not the same unto them both as hath been declared Wherefore this Imagination that the commands of God unto Duty However given and unto what ends soever are not equally obligatory unto the Consciences of Believers as if they were all given in order unto their Justification before God is an absurd figment and which all of them who are truly so defie Yea they have a greater power upon them than they could have if the Duties required in them were in order unto their Justification and so were antecedent thereunto For thereby they must be supposed to have their efficacy upon them before they truly believe For to say that a man may be a true Believer or truly
way of handling sacred things But the Spiritual Amplitude of Divine Truths is restrained hereby whilst low mean Philosophical senses are imposed on them And not only so but endless Divisions and Contentions are occasioned and perpetuated Hence when any Difference in Religion is in the pursuit of Controversies about it brought into the field of Metaphysical Respects and Philosophical terms whereof there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sufficient provision for the supply of the Combatants on both sides the truth for the most part as unto any concernment of the souls of men therein is utterly lost and buried in the rubbish of senseless and unprofitable words And thus in particular those who seem to be well enough agreed in the whole Doctrine of Justification so far as the Scripture goeth before them and the Experience of Believers keeps them company when once they ingage into their Philosophical Definitions and Distinctions are at such an irreconcilable variance among themselves as if they were agreed on no one thing that doth concern it For as men have various apprehensions in coining such Definitions as may be defensible against Objections which most men aim at therein So no Proposition can be so plain at least in materia probabili but that a man ordinarily versed in Paedagogical Terms and Metaphysical Notions may multiply Distinctions on every word of it 8. Hence there hath been a pretence and appearance of twenty several Opinions among Protestants about Justification as Bellarmine and Vasquez and others of the Papists charge it against them out of Osiander when the Faith of them all was one and the same Bellar. lib. 5. cap. 1. Vasq. in 1.2 Quaest. 113. disp 202. whereof we shall speak elsewhere When men are once advanced into that field of Disputation which is all overgrown with thorns of subtilties perplexed notions and futilous terms of Art they consider principally how they may entangle others in it scarce at all how they may get out of it themselves And in this posture they oftentimes utterly forget the business which they are about especially in this matter of Justification namely how a guilty Sinner may come to obtain Favour and Acceptance with God And not only so but I doubt they oftentimes dispute themselves beyond what they can well abide by when they return home unto a sedate meditation of the state of things between God and their own souls And I cannot much value their notions and sentiments of this matter who object and answer themselves out of a sense of their own Appearance before God much less of theirs who evidence an open inconformity unto the Grace and truth of this Doctrine in their hearts and lives 9. Wherefore we do but trouble the faith of Christians and the peace of the true Church of God whilst we dispute about Expressions Terms and Notions when the substance of the Doctrine intended may be declared and believed without the knowledge understanding or use of any of them Such are all those in whose subtile management the captious Art of wrangling doth principally consist A diligent Attendance unto the Revelation made hereof in the Scripture and an examination of our own experience thereby is the Sum of what is required of us for the right understanding of the truth herein And every true Believer who is taught of God knows how to put his whole trust in Christ alone and the Grace of God by him for Mercy Righteousness and Glory and not at all concern himself with those loads of thorns and briars which under the names of Definitions Distinctions accurate Notions in a number of Exotick Paedagogical and Philosophical terms some pretend to accommodate them withall 10. The Holy Ghost in expressing the most eminent Acts in our Justification especially as unto our Believing or the acting of that faith whereby we are justified is pleased to make use of many Metaphorical Expressions For any to use them now in the same way and to the same purpose is esteemed rude undisciplinary and even ridiculous but on what Grounds He that shall deny that there is more spiritual sense and experience conveyed by them into the hearts and minds of Believers which is the life and soul of teaching things practical than in the most accurate Philosophical expressions is himself really ignorant of the whole Truth in this matter The Propriety of such Expressions belongs and is confined unto natural science but spiritual Truths are to be taught not in the words which mans wisdom teacheth but which the Holy Ghost teacheth comparing spiritual things with spiritual God is wiser then man and the Holy Ghost knows better what are the most expedient ways for the Illumination of our minds with that knowledge of Evangelical Truths which it is our Duty to have and attain then the wisest of us all And other knowledge of or skill in these things then what is required of us in a way of Duty is not to be valued It is therefore to no purpose to handle the mysteries of the Gospel as if Holcot and Bricot Thomas and Gabriel with all the Sententiarists Summists and Quodlibetarians of the old Roman Peripatetical School were to be raked out of their Graves to be our guides Especially will they be of no use unto us in this Doctrine of Justification For whereas they pertinaciously adhered unto the Philosophy of Aristotle who knew nothing of any Righteousness but what is an habit inherent in our selves and the Acts of it they wrested the whole Doctrine of Justification unto a compliance therewithall So Pighius himself complained of them Controv. 2. Dissimulare non possumus hanc vel primam doctrinae Christianae partem de Justificatione obscuratam magis quam illustratam a scholasticis spinosis plerisque quaestionibus definitionibus secundum quas nonnulli magno supercilio primam in omnibus autoritatem arrogantes c. Secondly A due consideration of him with whom in this matter we have to do and that immediately is necessary unto a right stating of our thoughts about it The Scripture expresseth it emphatically that it is God that justifieth Rom. 8. 33. And he assumes it unto himself as his Prerogative to do what belongs thereunto I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins Isa. 43.25 And it is hard in my Apprehension to suggest unto him any other reason or consideration of the pardon of our sins seeing he hath taken it on him to do it for his own sake that is for the Lords sake Dan. 9.17 in whom all the seed of Israel are justified Isa. 45.25 In his sight before his Tribunal it is that men are justified or condemned Psal. 143.2 Enter not into Judgement with thy servant for in THY SIGHT shall no man living be justified And the whole work of Justification with all that belongeth thereunto is represented after the manner of a Juridical proceeding before Gods Tribunal as we shall see afterwards Therefore saith the Apostle
they found in many who yet do so assent unto the Truth But as we have shewed this is necessary unto Evangelical Justifying Faith and to suppose the contrary is to overthrow the order and use of the Law and Gospel with their mutual Relation unto one another in subserviency unto the design of God in the Salvation of Sinners 4. It is not a way of seeking Relief unto a convinced sinner whose mouth is stopped in that he is become guilty before God Such alone are capable Subjects of Justification and do or can seek after it in a due manner A meer Assent unto Divine Revelation is not peculiarly suited to give such persons Relief For it is that which brings them into that condition from whence they are to be relieved For the knowledge of sin is by the Law But Faith is a peculiar acting of the Soul for Deliverance 5. It is no more then what the Devils themselves may have and have as the Apostle James affirms For that Instance of their Believing one God proves that they believe also whatever this one God who is the first Essential Truth doth reveal to be true And it may consist with all manner of wickedness and without any Obedience and so make God a liar 1 Joh. 2.4 And it is no wonder if men deny us to be justified by Faith who know no other Faith but this 6. It no way answers the Descriptions that are given of justifying Faith in the Scripture Particularly it is by Faith as it is justifying that we are said to receive Christ Joh. 1.12 Col. 2.6 To receive the Promise the Word the Grace of God the Attonement Jam. 1.21 Joh. 3.33 Act. 2.41 chap. 11.1 Rom. 5.11 Heb. 11.17 To cleave unto God Deut. 4.4 Act. 11.23 And so in the Old Testament it is generally expressed by Trust and Hope Now none of these things are contained in a meer Assent unto the Truth but they require other actings of the Soul than what are peculiar unto the understanding only 7. It answers not the Experience of them that truly believe This all our Enquiries and Arguments in this matter must have respect unto For the sum of what we aim at is only to discover what they do who really believe unto the Justification of Life It is not what notions men may have hereof nor how they express their Conceptions how defensible they are against Objections by accuracy of Expressions and subtile Distinctions but only what we our selves do if we truly believe that we enquire after And although our Differences about it do argue the great imperfection of that state wherein we are so as that those who truly believe cannot agree what they do in their so doing which should give us a mutual tenderness and forbearance towards each other yet if men would attend unto their own Experience in the Application of their Souls unto God for the pardon of Sin and Righteousness to Life more than unto the notions which on various occasions their minds are influenced by or prepossessed withall many differences and unnecessary disputations about the nature of Justifying Faith would be prevented or prescinded I deny therefore that this general Assent unto the Truth how firm soever it be or what effects in the way of Duty or Obedience soever it may produce doth answer the Experience of any one true Believer as containing the entire Actings of his Soul towards God for pardon of sin and Justification 8. That Faith alone is Justifying which hath Justification actually accompanying of it For thence alone it hath that denomination To suppose a man to have Justifying Faith and not to be justified is to suppose a Contradiction Nor do we enquire after the nature of any other Faith but that whereby a Believer is actually justified But it is not so with all them in whom this Assent is found nor will those that plead for it allow that upon it alone any are immediately justified Wherefore it is sufficiently evident that there is somewhat more required unto Justifying Faith than a real Assent unto all Divine Revelations although we do give that Assent by the Faith whereby we are justified But on the other side it is supposed that by some the Object of Justifying Faith is so much restrained and the nature of it thereby determined unto such a peculiar Acting of the mind as compriseth not the whole of what is in the Scripture ascribed unto it So some have said that it is the pardon of our sins in particular that is the Object of Justifying Faith Faith therefore they make to be a full perswasion of the forgiveness of our sins through the Mediation of Christ or that what Christ did and suffered as our Mediator he did it for us in particular And a particular Application of especial mercy unto our own Souls and Consciences is hereby made the Essence of Faith Or to believe that our own sins are forgiven seems hereby to be the first and most proper Act of Justifying Faith Hence it would follow that whosoever doth not believe or hath not a firm perswasion of the forgiveness of his own sins in particular hath no saving Faith is no true Believer which is by no means to be admitted And if any have been or are of this Opinion I fear that they were in the asserting of it neglective of their own Experience Or it may be rather that they knew not how in their Experience all the other Actings of Faith wherein its Essence doth consist were included in this perswasion which in an especial manner they aimed at whereof we shall speak afterwards And there is no doubt unto me but that this which they propose Faith is suited unto aimeth at and doth ordinarily effect in true Believers who improve it and grow in its exercise in a due manner Many great Divines at the first Reformation did as the Lutherans generally yet do thus make the mercy of God in Christ and thereby the forgiveness of our own sins to be the proper Object of Justifying Faith as such whose Essence therefore they placed in a fiducial Trust in the Grace of God by Christ declared in the Promises with a certain unwavering Application of them unto our selves And I say with some confidence that those who endeavour not to attain hereunto either understand not the nature of Believing or are very neglective both of the Grace of God and of their own Peace That which enclined those great and holy Persons so to express themselves in this matter and to place the Essence of Faith in the highest Acting of it wherein yet they always included and supposed its other Acts was the state of the Consciences of men with whom they had to do Their Contest in this Article with the Roman Church was about the way and means whereby the Consciences of convinced troubled sinners might come to rest and peace with God For at that time they were no otherwise instructed but that these things were to be obtained not
by the Gospel 3 The Nature of Faiths compliance with that Design or its Actings with respect thereunto 4 The Order Method and Way of Believing as declared in the Scripture 1. The Gospel is the Revelation or Declaration of that way of Justification and Salvation for sinners by Jesus Christ which God in infinite Wisdom Love and Grace hath prepared And upon a supposition of the Reception thereof it is accompanied with Precepts of Obedience and Promises of Rewards Therein the Righteousness of God that which he requires accepts and approves unto Salvation is revealed from Faith unto Faith Rom. 1.17 This is the Record of God therein that he hath given unto us Eternal Life and this Life is in his Son 1 Joh. 5.10 So Joh. 3.14 15 16 17. The Words of this Life Act. 5.20 All the Counsel of God Act. 20.27 Wherefore in the Dispensation or Preaching of the Gospel this way of Salvation is proposed unto sinners as the great Effect of divine Wisdom and Grace Vnbelief is the Rejection Neglect Non-admission or Disapprobation of it on the Terms whereon and for the Ends for which it is so proposed The Unbelief of the Pharisees upon the preparatory Preaching of John the Baptist is called the rejecting of the Counsel of God against themselves that is unto their own Ruine Luke 7.30 They would none my Counsel is an Expression to the same purpose Prov. 1.30 so is the neglecting of this great Salvation Heb. 2.3 Not giving it that Admission which the Excellency of it doth require A disallowing of Christ The Stone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 2.7 The Builders disapproved of as not meet for that Place and Work whereunto it was designed Act. 4.14 This is Unbelief To disapprove of Christ and the Way of Salvation by him as not answering Divine Wisdom nor suited unto the End designed So is it described by the refusing or not receiving of him all to the same purpose What is intended will be more Evident if we consider the proposal of the Gospel where it issued in Vnbelief in the first preaching of it and where it continueth still so to do 1. Most of those who rejected the Gospel by their Vnbelief did it under this notion that the way of Salvation and Blessedness proposed therein was not a way answering Divine Goodness and Power such as they might safely Confide in and Trust unto This the Apostle declares at large 1 Cor. 1. so he expresseth it ver 23 24. We Preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness But unto them that are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God That which they declared unto them in the preaching of the Gospel was That Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture chap. 15.3 Herein they proposed him as the Ordinance of God as the great effect of his Wisdom and Power for the Salvation of sinners But as unto those who continued in their Vnbelief they rejected it as any such way esteeming it both Weakness and Folly And therefore he describeth the Faith of them that are called by their Approbation of the Wisdom and Power of God herein The want of a comprehension of the Glory of God in this way of Salvation rejecting it thereon is that Unbelief which ruines the Souls of men 2 Cor. 4.3 4. So is it with all that continue Vnbelievers under the proposal of the Object of Faith in the Preaching of the Gospel They may give an Assent unto the Truth of it so far as it is a meer Act of the mind at least they find not themselves concerned to reject it Yea they may Assent unto it with that Temporary Faith which we described before and perform many Duties of Religion thereon Yet do they manifest that they are not sincere Believers that they do not believe with the Heart unto Righteousness by many things that are irreconcileable unto and inconsistent with Justifying Faith The Enquiry therefore is wherein the Vnbelief of such persons on the Account whereof they perish doth consist and what is the formal nature of it It is not as was said in the want of an Assent unto the Truths of the Doctrine of the Gospel for from such an Assent are they said in many places of the Scripture to believe as hath been proved And this Assent may be so firm and by various means so radicated in their minds as that in Testimony unto it they may give their Bodies to be burned as men also may do in the confirmation of a false perswasion Nor is it the want of an especial fiduciary Application of the Promises of the Gospel unto themselves and the belief of the pardon of their own sins in particular For this is not proposed unto them in the first preaching of the Gospel as that which they are first to believe and there may be a believing unto Righteousness where this is not attained Isa. 50.10 This will evidence Faith not to be true but it is not formal unbelief Nor is it the want of Obedience unto the precepts of the Gospel in Duties of Holiness and Righteousness For these commands as formally given in and by the Gospel belong only unto them that truly believe and are justified thereon That therefore which is required unto Evangelical Faith wherein the nature of it doth consist as it is the foundation of all future Obedience is the Hearts Approbation of the way of Life and Salvation by Jesus Christ proposed unto it as the Effect of the infinite Wisdom Love Grace and Goodness of God and as that which is suited unto all the wants and whole design of Guilty Convinced sinners This such Persons have not and in the want thereof consists the formal Nature of Vnbelief For without this no man is or can be influenced by the Gospel unto a Relinquishment of sin or encouraged unto Obedience whatever they may do on other grounds and motives that are forraign unto the Grace of it And wherever this Cordial sincere Approbation of the way of Salvation by Jesus Christ proposed in the Gospel doth prevail it will infallibly produce both Repentance and Obedience If the Mind and Heart of a Convinced sinner for of such alone we treat be able spiritually to discern the Wisdom Love and Grace of God in this way of Salvation and be under the power of that perswasion he hath the ground of Repentance and Obedience which is given by the Gospel The receiving of Christ mentioned in the Scripture and whereby the Nature of Faith in its exercise is expressed I refer unto the latter part of the Description given concerning the Souls Acquiescency in God by the way proposed Again Some there were at first and such still continue to be who rejected not this way absolutely and in the notion of it but comparatively as reduced to practice and so perished in their unbelief They judged the way of their own Righteousness to be better as
when he denies that by the Works of the Law any can be justified is the entire Rule and Guide of our Obedience unto God even as unto the whole frame and spiritual Constitution of our Souls with all the Acts of Obedience or Duties that he requireth of us And 2. That the Works of this Law which he so frequently and plainly excludeth from our Justification and therein opposeth to the Grace of God and the Blood of Christ are all the Duties of Obedience Internal Supernatural External Ritual however we are or may be enabled to perform them that God requireth of us And these things excluded it is the Righteousness of Christ alone imputed unto us on the account whereof we are justified before God The Truth is so far as I can discern the real Difference that is at this Day amongst us about the Doctrine of our Justification before God is the same that was between the Apostle and the Jews and no other But Controversies in Religion make a great Appearance of being new when they are only varied and made different by the new Terms and Expressions that are introduced into the handling of them So hath it fallen out in the Controversie about Nature and Grace For as unto the true nature of it it is the same in these days as it was between the Apostle Paul and the Pharisees between Austin and Pelagius afterwards But it hath now passed through so many forms and dresses of Words as that it can scarce be known to be what it was Many at this day will condemn both Pelagius and the Doctrine that he taught in the Words wherein he taught it and yet embrace and approve of the things themselves which he intended The Introduction of every Change in Philosophical Learning gives an Appearance of a Change in the Controversies which are managed thereby But take off the covering of Philosophical Expressions Distinctions Metaphysical Notions and futilous Terms of Art which some of the Ancient Schoolmen and later Disputants have cast upon it and the Difference about Grace and Nature is amongst us all the same that it was of old and as it is allowed by the Socinians Thus the Apostle treating of our Justification before God doth it in these Terms which are both expressive of the thing it self and were well understood by them with whom he had to do such as the Holy Spirit in their Revelation had consecrated unto their proper use Thus on the one hand he expresly excludes the Law our own Works our own Righteousness from any interest therein and in opposition unto and as inconsistent with them in the matter of Justification he ascribes it wholly unto the Righteousness of God Righteousness imputed unto us the Obedience of Christ Christ made Righteousness unto us the blood of Christ as a Propitiation Faith receiving Christ and the Atonement There is no avvakened Conscience guided by the least beam of spiritual Illumination but in it self plainly understands these things and what is intended in them But through the Admission of Exotick Learning with Philosophical Terms and notions into the way of teaching Spiritual things in Religion a new face and Appearance is put on the whole matter and a Composition made between those things which the Apostle directly opposeth as contrary and inconsistent Hence are all our Discourses about Preparations Dispositions Conditions Merits de congruo condigno with such a train of Distinctions as that if some bounds be not fixed unto the inventing and coyning of them which being a facile Work grows on us every day we shall not e're long be able to look through them so as to discover the things intended or rightly to understand one another For as one said of lies so it may be said of arbitrary distinctions they must be continually new thatched over or it will rain through But the best way is to cast of all these coverings and we shall then quickly see that the real difference about the Justification of a Sinner before God is the same and no other as it was in the days of the Apostle Paul between him and the Jews And all those things which men are pleased now to plead for with respect unto a Causality in our Justification before God under the Names of Preparations Conditions Dispositions Merit with respect unto a first or second Justification are as effectually excluded by the Apostle as if he had expresly named them every one For in them all there is a management according unto our Conceptions and the Terms of the Learning passant in the present Age of the Plea for our own personal Righteousness which the Jews maintained against the Apostle And the true Understanding of what he intends by the Law the Works and Righteousness thereof would be sufficient to determine this Controversie but that men are grown very Skilful in the Art of endless Wrangling CHAP. XV. Faith alone THe Truth which we plead hath two Parts 1. That the Righteousness of God imputed to us unto the Justification of Life is the Righteousness of Christ by whose Obedience we are made Righteous 2. That it is Faith alone which on our Part is required to interest us in that Righteousness or whereby we comply with Gods Grant and Communication of it or receive it unto our Use and Benefit For although this Faith is in it self the radical Principle of all Obedience and whatever is not so which cannot which doth not on all occasions evidence prove shew or manifest it self by Works is not of the same kind with it yet as we are justified by it its act and Duty is such or of that nature as that no other Grace Duty or Work can be associated with it or be of any Consideration And both these are evidently confirmed in that Description which is given us in the Scripture of the Nature of Faith and believing unto the Justification of life I know that many Expressions used in the Declaration of the Nature and Work of Faith herein are Metaphorical at least are generally esteemed so to be But they are such as the Holy Ghost in his Infinite Wisdom thought meet to make use of for the Instruction and Edification of the Church And I cannot but say that those who understand not how effectually the light of knowledg is communicated unto the minds of them that believe by them and a sense of the things intended unto their Spiritual Experience seem not to have taken a due consideration of them Neither whatever Skill we pretend unto do we know always what expressions of Spiritual things are Metaphorical Those oftentimes may seem so to be which are most proper However it is most safe for us to adhere unto the Expressions of the Holy Spirit and not to embrace such senses of things as are inconsistent with them and opposite unto them Wherefore 1. That Faith whereby we are justified is most frequently in the New Testament expressed by receiving This notion of Faith hath been before spoken unto
in every word And those other redoubled expressions all loss for him that I may win him that I may be found in him that I may know him all argue the working of his affections under the Conduct of Faith and Truth unto an acquiescency in Christ alone as all and in all Somewhat of this frame of mind is necessary unto them that would believe his Doctrine Those who are utter strangers unto the one will never receive the other 2. In his expression of all other other things that are our own that are not Christ whether Priviledges or Duties however good useful excellent they may be in themselves yet in Comparison of Christ and his Righteousness and with respect unto the end of our standing before God and acceptance with him with the same vehemency of Spirit he casts contempt upon calling them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dogs meat to be left for them whom he calleth Dogs that is evil Workers of the Concision or the wicked Jews who adhered pertinaciously unto the Righteousness of the Law v. 2. This account of the earnestness of the Apostle in this Argument and the warmth of his Expressions I thought meet to give as that which gives light into the whole of his design 6. The question being thus stated the enquiry is what any person who desires acceptance with God or a Righteousness whereon he may be justified before him ought to betake himself unto One of the ways proposed he must close with all Either he must comply with the Apostle in his Resolution to reject all his own Righteousness and to betake himself unto the Righteousness of God which is by Faith in Christ Jesus alone or find out for himself or get some to find out for him some exceptions unto the Apostles conclusion or some distinctions that may prepare a reserve for his own works one way or other in his justification before God Here every one must chuse for himself In the mean time we thus argue If our own Righteousness and the Righteousness which is of God by Faith or that which is through the Faith of Christ Jesus namely the Righteousness which God imputeth unto us Rom. 4.6 Or the abundance of Grace and the gift of Righteousness thereby which we receive Rom. 5.17 are opposite and inconsistent in the Work of Justification before God then are we justified by Faith alone through the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ unto us The consequence is plain from the removal of all other ways causes means and conditions of it as inconsistent with it But the antecedent is expresly the Apostles Not my own but that of God Again That whereby and wherewith we are found in Christ is that whereby alone we are justified before God for to be found in Christ expresseth the state of the person that is to be justified before God Whereunto is opposed to be found in our selves And according unto these different states doth the judgment of God pass concerning us And as for those who are found in themselves we know what will be their portion But in Christ we are found by Faith alone All manner of evasions are made use of by some to escape the force of this Testimony It is said in general That no sober minded Man can imagine the Apostle did not desire to be found in Gospel Righteousness or That by his own Righteousness he meant that For it is that alone can intitle us unto the Benefits of Christs Righteousness Nollem Dictum 1. The censure is too severe to be cast on all Protestant Writers without exception who have expounded this place of the Apostle and all others except some few of late influenced by the heat of the Controversie wherein they are ingaged 2. If the Gospel Righteousness intended be his own Personal Righteousness and Obedience there is some want of consideration in affirming That he did not desire to be found in it That wherein we are found thereon are we to be judged to be found in our own Evangelical Righteousness before God is to enter into judgment with God thereon which those who understand any thing aright of God and themselves will not be free unto And to make this to be the meaning of his words I desire not to be found in my own Righteousness which is after the Law but I desire to be found in mine own Righteousness which is according to the Gospel whereas as they are his own inherent Righteousness they are both the same doth not seem a proper interpretation of his words and it shall be immediately disproved 3. That our Personal Gospel Righteousness doth intitle us unto the Benefits of Christs Righteousness that is as unto our Justification before God is gratis dictum not one Testimony of Scripture can be produced that gives the least countenance unto such an assertion That it is contrary unto many express Testimonies and inconsistent with the freedom of the Grace of God in our Justification as proposed in the Scripture hath been proved before Nor do any of the places which assert the necessity of obedience and good Works in Believers that is Justified Persons unto Salvation any way belong unto the Proof of this Assertion or in the least express or intimate any such thing And in particular the Assertion of it is expresly contradictory unto that of the Apostle Tit. 3.4 5. But I forbear and proceed to the consideration of the special answers that are given unto this testimony especially those of Bellarmine whereunto I have as yet seen nothing added with any pretence of Reason in it 1. Some say that by his own Righteousness which the Apostle rejects he intends only his Righteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or by the Works of the Law But this was only an outward external Righteousness consisting in the observation of Rites and Ceremonies without respect unto the inward frame or obedience of the heart But this is an impious imagination The Righteousness which is by the Law is the Righteousness which the Law requires and those works of it which if a Man do he shall live in them for the doers of the Law shall be justified Rom. 2.16 Neither did God ever give any Law of Obedience unto Man but what obliged him to love the Lord his God with all his heart and all his soul. And it is so far from being true That God by the Law required an external Righteousness only that he frequently condemns it as an abomination to him where it is alone 2. Others say that it is the Righteousness whatever it be which he had during his Pharisaism And although he should be allowed in that state to have lived in all good Conscience instantly to have served God day and night and to have had respect as well unto the internal as the external Works of the Law yet all these Works being before Faith before Conversion to God may be and are to be rejected as unto any concurrence unto our Justification But Works wrought in Faith
whilest we know but in part and Prophesie but in part yet I must say that in my Judgment the usual solution of this appearing difficulty securing the Doctrine of Justification by Faith through the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ from any concernment or contradiction in the Discourse of St. James Chap. 2. v. 14. to the end hath not been in the least impeached not hath had any new difficulty put upon it in some late Discourses to that purpose I should therefore utterly forbear to speak any thing hereof but that I suppose it will be expected in a Discourse of this nature and do hope that I also may contribute some light unto the clearing and vindication of the Truth To this purpose it may be observed That 1. It is taken for granted on all hands that there is no real repugnancy or contradiction between what is delivered by these two Apostles For if that were so the writings of one of them must be Pseudepigrapha or falsly ascribed unto them whose names they bear and uncanonical as the Authority of the Epistle of James hath been by some both of old and of late highly but rashly questioned Wherefore their words are certainly capable of a just Reconciliation That we cannot any of us attain thereunto or that we do not agree therein is from the darkness of our own minds the weakness of our understandings and with too many from the power of prejudices 2. It is taken also for granted on all other occasions that when there is an appearance of Repugnancy or contradiction in any places of Scripture if some or any of them do treat directly designedly and largely about the matter concerning which there is a seeming repugnancy or contradiction and others or any other speak of the same things only Obiter occasionally transiently in order unto other ends the truth is to be learned stated and fixed from the former places Or the interpretation of those places where any truth is mentioned only occasionally with reference unto other things or ends is as unto that truth to be taken from and accommodated unto those other places wherein it is the design and purpose of the Holy Penman to declare it for its own sake and to guide the Faith of the Church therein And there is not a more rational and natural Rule of the interpretation of Scripture among all them which are by common consent agreed upon 3. According unto this Rule it is unquestionable that the Doctrine of Justification before God is to be learned from the writings of the Apostle Paul and from them is light to be taken into all other places of Scripture where it is occasionally mentioned Especially it is so considering how exactly this Doctrine represents the whole Scope of the Scripture and is witnessed unto by particular Testimonies occasionally given unto the same truth without number For it must be acknowledged that he wrote of this subject of our Justification before God on purpose to declare it for its own sake and its use in the Church and that he doth it fully largely and frequently in a constant Harmony of expressions And he owns those Reasons that pressed him unto fulness and accuracy herein 1 The importance of the Doctrine it self This he declares to be such as that thereon our Salvation doth immediately depend and that it was the hinge whereon the whole Doctrine of the Gospel did turn Articulus stantis aut cadentis-Ecelesiae Gal. 2.16 21. Chap. 5.4 5. 2 The plausible and dangerous opposition that was then made unto it This was so managed and that with such specious pretences as that very many were prevailed on and turned from the truth by it as it was with the Galatians and many detained from the Faith of the Gospel out of a dislike unto it Rom. 10.3 4. What care and diligence this requireth in the Declaration of any truth is sufficiently known unto them who are acquainted with these things What zeal care and circumspection it stirred up the Apostle unto is manifest in all his writings 3 The Abuse which the corrupt nature of man is apt to put upon this Doctrine of Grace and which some did actually pervert it unto This also himself takes notice of and througly vindicates it from giving the least countenance unto such wrestings and impositions Certainly never was there a greater necessity incumbent on any person fully and plainly to teach and declare a Doctrine of truth than was on him at that time in his circumstances considering the place and duty that he was called unto And no reason can be imagined why we should not principally and in the first place learn the truth herein from his declaration and vindication of it if withal we do indeed believe that he was Divinely inspired and Divinely guided to reveal the truth for the information of the Church As unto what is delivered by the Apostle James so far as our Justification is included therein things are quite otherwise He doth not undertake to declare the Doctrine of our Justification before God but having another design in hand as we shall see immediately he vindicates it from the abuse that some in those days had put it unto as other Doctrines of the Grace of God which they turn'd into licentiousness Wherefore it is from the writings of the Apostle Paul that we are principally to learn the truth in this matter and unto what is by him plainly declared is the interpretation of other places to be accommodated 4. Some of late are not of this mind They contend earnestly that Paul is to be interpreted by James and not on the contrary And unto this end they tell us that the Writings of Paul are obscure that sundry of the antients take notice thereof that many take occasion of errors from them with sundry things of an alike nature indeed scandalous to Christian Religion And that James writing after him is presumed to give an interpretation unto his sayings which are therefore to be expounded and understood according unto that interpretation Ans. 1 As to the vindication of the Writings of St. Paul which begin now to be frequently reflected on with much severity which is one effect of the secret prevalency of the Atheism of these days as there is no need of it so it is designed for a more proper place Only I know not how any person that can pretend the least acquaintance with Antiquity can plead a passage out of Irenaeus wherein he was evidently himself mistaken or a rash word of Origen or the like in derogation from the perspicuity of the Writings of this Apostle when they cannot but know how easie it were to overwhelm them with Testimonies unto the contrary from all the famous Writers of the Church in several ages And as for instance in one Chrysostome in forty places gives an account why some men understood not his Writings which in themselves were so gloriously evident and perspicuous so for their satisfaction I shall refer them only
acknowledged that the objective Grace of the Gospel in the Doctrine of it is liable to abuse where there is nothing of the subjective Grace of it in the Hearts of men and the ways of its influence into the Life of God are uncouth unto the Reasonings of carnal minds So was it charged by the Papists at the first Reformation and continueth yet so to be Yet as it gave the first occasion unto the Reformation it self so was it that whereby the Souls of men being set at liberty from their bondage unto innumerable superstitious fears and observances utterly inconsistent with true Gospel Obedience and directed into the ways of Peace with God through Jesus Christ were made fruitful in real Holiness and to abound in all those blessed effects of the Life of God which were never found among their Adversaries The same charge was afterwards renewed by the Socinians and continueth still to be managed by them But I suppose wise and impartial men will not lay much weight on their Accusations until they have manifested the efficacy of their contrary perswasion by better effects and fruits than yet they have done What sort of men they were who first coined that systeme of Religion which they adhere unto one who knew them well enough and sufficiently enclined unto their Antitrinitarian Opinions declares in one of the Queries that he proposed unto Socinus himself and his followers If this saith he be the truth which you contend for whence comes it to pass that it is declared only by persons nulla pietatis commendatione nullo laudato prioris vitae exemplo commendatos imo ut plerumque videmus per vagabundos contentionum zeli carnalis plenos homines alios ex castris aulis ganeis prolatam esse Scrupuli ab excellenti viro propositi inter oper Socin The fiercest charge of such men against any Doctrines they oppose as inconsistent with the necessary motives unto Godliness are a Recommendation of it unto the minds of considerative men And there cannot be a more effectual Engine plied for the ruine of Religion then for men to declame against the Doctrine of Justification by Faith alone and other Truths concerning the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ as those which overthrow the necessity of moral Duties Good Works and Gospel Obedience whilst under the conduct of the Opinions which they embrace in opposition unto them they give not the least evidence of the power of the Truth or Grace of the Gospel upon their own hearts or in their lives Whereas therefore the whole Gospel is the Truth which is after Godliness declaring and exhibiting that Grace of God which teacheth us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts and that we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this world we being fallen into those times wherein under great and fierce contests about notions opinions and practices in Religion there is an horrible decay in true Gospel Purity and Holiness of life amongst the generality of men I shall readily grant that keeping a due regard unto the only standard of Truth a secondary Trial of Doctrines proposed and contended for may and ought to be made by the ways lives walkings and conversations of them by whom they are received and professed And although it is acknowledged that the Doctrine pleaded in the ensuing discourse be liable to be abused yea turned into licentiousness by men of corrupt minds through the prevalency of vitious Habits in them as is the whole Doctrine of the Grace of God by Jesus Christ and although the way and means of its efficacy and influence into universal Obedience unto God in Righteousness and true Holiness be not discernable without some beam of spiritual Light nor will give an experience of their power unto the minds of men utterly destitute of a principle of spiritual Life yet if it cannot preserve its station in the Church by this Rule of its useful tendency unto the promotion of Godliness and its necessity thereunto in all them by whom it is really believed and received in its proper light and power and that in the experience of former and present times I shall be content that it be exploded 4. Finding that not a few have esteemed it compliant with their Interest to publish exceptions against some few leaves which in the handling of a subject of another nature I occasionally wrote many years ago on this Subject I am not without Apprehensions that either the same persons or others of alike temper and principles may attempt an opposition unto what is here expresly tendered thereon On supposition of such an Attempt I shall in one word let the Authors of it know wherein alone I shall be concerned For if they shall make it their business to cavil at Expressions to wrest my words wiredraw inferences and conclusions from them not expresly owned by me to revile my person to catch at advantages in any occasional passages or other unessential parts of the Discourse labouring for an Appearance of success and reputation to themselves thereby without a due attendance unto Christian moderation candor and ingenuity I shall take no more notice of what they say or write then I would do of the greatest impertinencies that can be reported in this world The same I say concerning oppositions of the like nature unto any other writings of mine a work which as I hear some are at present engaged in I have somewhat else to do than to cast away any part of the small remainder of my Life in that kind of controversial Writings which good men bewail and wise men deride Whereas therefore the principal design of this Discourse is to state the Doctrine of Justification from the Scripture and to confirm it by the Testimonies thereof I shall not esteem it spoken against unless our Exposition of Scripture Testimonies and the Application of them unto the present Argument be disproved by just Rules of Interpretation and another sense of them be evinced All other things which I conceive necessary to be spoken unto in order unto the right understanding and due improvement of the Truth pleaded for are comprised and declared in the ensuing general Discourses to that purpose These few things I thought meet to mind the Reader of From my Study May the 30th 1677. J. O. Considerations previous unto the Explanation of the Doctrine of Justification § 1. THe General Nature of Justification State of the Person to be justified antecedently thereunto Rom. 4.5 Chap. 3.19 Chap. 1.32 Gal. 3.10 Joh. 3.18 36. Gal. 3.22 The sole Inquiry on that state Whether it be any thing that is our own inherently or what is only imputed unto us that we are to trust unto for our Acceptance with God The sum of this Inquiry The proper ends of Teaching and Learning the Doctrine of Justification Things to be avoided therein Pag. 1. § 2. A due consideration of God the Judge of all necessary unto the right stating and apprehension of the Doctrine of
Justification Rom. 8.33 Isa. 43.25.45.23 Psal. 145.2 Rom. 3.20 What thoughts will be ingenerated hereby in the minds of Men. Isai. 33.14 Mic. 6.7 Isa. 6.5 The Plea of Job against his friends and before God not the same Job 40.3 4 5. Chap. 42.4 5 6. Directions for visiting the sick given of old Testimonies of Jerome and Ambrose Sense of Men in their Prayers Dan. 9.7 18. Psal. 143.2.130.3 4. Paraphrase of Austine on that place Prayer of Pelagius Publick Liturgies Pag. 8. § 3. A due sense of our Apostasie from God the Depravation of our Nature thereby with the power and guilt of Sin the holiness of Law necessary unto a right understanding of the Doctrine of Justification Method of the Apostle to this purpose Romans 1 2 3 4. Chap. Grounds of the antient and present Pelagianism in the denial of these things Instances thereof Boasting of Perfection from the same Ground Knowledge of Sin and Grace mutually promote each other Pag. 18. § 4. Opposition between Works and Grace as unto Justification Method of the Apostle in the Epistle to the Romans to manifest this opposition A Scheam of others contrary thereunto Testimonies witnessing this opposition Judgment to be made on them Distinctions whereby they are evaded The uselessness of them Resolution of the case in hand by Bellarmine Luk. 17.10 Dan. 9.18 Pag. 24. § 5. A Commutation as unto Sin and Righteousness by Imputation between Christ and Believers represented in the Scripture The Ordinance of the Scape Goat Levit. 16.21 22. The nature of Expiatory Sacrifices Levit. 4.29 Expiation of an uncertain Murther Deut. 21.1 2 3 4 5 6 7. The Commutation intended proved and vindicated Isa. 53.5 6. 2 Cor. 5.21 Rom. 8.3 4. Gal. 3.13 14. 1 Pet. 1.24 Deut. 21.23 Testimonies of Justin Martyr Gregory Nissen Austine Chrysostome Bernard Taulerus Pighius to that purpose The proper actings of Faith with respect thereunto Rom. 5.11 Matth. 11.28 Psa. 38.4 Gen. 4.13 Isa. 53.11 Gal. 3.1 Isa. 45.22 Joh. 3.14 15. A bold Calumny answered Pag. 38 39. § 6. Introduction of Grace by Jesus Christ into the whole of our Relation unto God and its respect unto all the parts of our Obedience No Mystery of Grace in the Covenant of Works All Religion originally commensurate unto Reason No notions of Natural Light concerning the Introduction of the Mediation of Christ and Mystery of Grace into our Relation to God Eph. 1.17 18 19. Reason as corrupted can have no notions of Religion but what are derived from its primitive state Hence the Mysteries of the Gospel esteemed folly Reason as corrupted repugnant unto the Mystery of Gâ—â—â—e Accommodation of Spiritual Mysteries unto Corrupt Reason wherefore acceptable unto many Reasons of it Two parts of corrupted Natures repugnancy unto the Mystery of the Gospel 1. That which would reduce it unto the private Reason of Men. Thence the Trinity denied And the Incarnation of the Son of God Without which the Doctrine of Justification cannot stand Rule of the Socinians in the Interpretation of the Scripture 2. Want of a due comprehension of the Harmony that is between all the parts of the Mystery of Grace This Harmomy proved Compared with the Harmony in the Works of Nature To be studied But is learned only of them who are taught of God and in experience Evil events of the want of a due comprehension hereof Instances of them All applied unto the Doctrine of Justification Pag. 53. § 7. General prejudices against the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ. 1. That it is not in Terms found in the Scripture answered 2. That nothing is said of it in the writings of the Evangelists answered Joh. 20.30 31. Nature of Christs Personal Ministery Revelations by the holy Spirit immediately from Christ. Design of the writings of the Evangelists 3. Differences among Protestants themselves about this Doctrine answered Sense of the Antients herein What is of real Difference among Protestants considered Pag. 69. § 8. Influence of the Doctrine of Justification into the first Reformation Advantages unto the World by that Reformation State of the Consciences of Men under the Papacy with respect unto Justification before God Alterations made therein by the Light of this Doctrine though not received Alterations in the Pagan unbelieving World by the Introduction of Christianity Design and success of the first Reformer herein Attempts for Reconciliation with the Papists in this Doctrine and their success Remainders of the â—gnorance of the Truth in the Roman Church Vnavoidable consequences of the corruption of this Doctrine Pag. 83. CHAP. I. JVstification by Faith generally acknowledged The meaning of it perverted The nature and use of Faith in Justification proposed to consideration Distinctions about it waved A twofold Faith of the Gospel expressed in the Scripture Faith that is not justifying Acts 8.13 Joh. 2.23 24. Luk. 8.13 Matth. 22.28 Historical Faith whence it is so called and the nature of it Degrees of Assent in it Justification not ascribed unto any Degree of it A Calumny obviated The causes of true saving Faith Conviction of Sin previous unto it The nature of legal Conviction and its Effects Arguments to prove it antecedent unto Faith Without the consideration of it the true nature of Faith not to be understood The Order and Relation of the Law and Gospel Rom. 1.17 Instance of Adam Effects of Conviction internal Displicency and sorrow Fear of punishment Desire of Deliverance External Abstinence from Sin Performance of Duties Reformation of Life Not conditions of Justification not Formal Dispositions unto it not Moral Preparations for it The Order of God in Justification The proper object of justifying Faith Not all Divine Verity equally proved by sundry Arguments The pardon of our own sins whether the first object of Faith The Lord Christ in the Work of Mediation as the Ordinance of God for the Recovery of lost Sinners the proper object of justifying Faith The Position explained and proved Rom. 3.24 25. Ephes. 1.6 7 8. Acts 10.41 Chap. 16.13 Chap. 4.12 Luk. 24.25 26 27. Joh. 1.12.3.16 36.6.29.7.38 c. Col. 2.12 1 Cor. 2.1 31. 2 Cor. 5.19 20 21. Pag. 92 93 c. CHAP. II. The nature of justifying Faith in particular or of Faith in that exercise of it whereby we are justified The Hearts approbation of the way of the Justification and Salvation of Sinners by Christ with its acquiescency therein The description given explained and confirmed 1. From the nature of the Gospel 2. Exemplified in its contrary or the nature of unbelief Prov. 1.30 Heb. 2.3 1 Pet. 2.7 1 Cor. 1.23 24. 2 Cor. 4.3 4. What it is and wherein it doth consist 3. The Design of God in and by the Gospel His own Glory his utmost End in all things The Glory of his Righteousness Grace Love Wisdom c. The end of God in the Way of the Salvation of Sinners by Christ. Rom. 3.25 Joh. 3.16 1 Joh. 3.16 Eph. 1.5 6. 1 Cor. 1.24 Ephes. 3.10 Rom. 1.16.4.16 Ephes.
Rule of all Inherent Moral or Spiritual Obedience What are the Works of the Law declared from the Scripture and the Argument thereby confirmed The nature of Justifying Faith further declared Pag. 400. CHAP. XV. Of Faith alone CHAP. XVI Testimonies of Scripture confirming the Doctrine of Justification by the Imputation of the Rightesness of Christ. Jere. 23.6 Explained and vindicated Pag. 419. CHAP. XVII Testimonies out of the Evangelists considered Design of our Saviours Sermon on the Mount The purity and penalty of the Law vindicated by him Arguments from thence Luk. 18.9 10 11 12 13. The Parable of the Pharisee and Publican explained and applied to the present Argument Testimonies out of the Gospel by John Chap. 3.14 15 16 17 18 c. Pag. 425. CHAP. XVIII Testimonies out of the Epistles of Paul the Apostle His design in the Fifth Chapter to the Romans That Design explained at large and applied to the present Argument Chap. 3.24 25 26. explained and the true sense of the words vindicated The Causes of Justification enumerated Apostolical Inferences from the consideration of them Chap. 4. Design of the Disputation of the Apostle therein Analysis of his Discourse Ver. 4 5. particularly insisted on their true sense vindicated What Works excluded from the Justification of Abraham Who it is that worketh not In what sense the ungodly are justified All Men ungodly antecedently unto their Justification Faith alone the means of Justification on our part Faith it self absolutely considered not the Righteousness that is imputed unto us Proved by sundry Arguments Pag. 431. Chap. 5. Ver. 12 13 14 15 16 17 18. Boasting excluded in our selves asserted in God The design and sum of the Apostles Argument Objection of Socinus removed Comparison between the two Adams and those that derive from them Sin entered into the World What Sin intended Death what it compriseth What intended by it The sense of those words in as much or in whom all have sinned cleared and vindicated The various oppositions used by the Apostle in this Discourse Principally between Sin or the Fall and the Free Gift Between the disobedience of the one and the obedience of another Judgment on the one hand and Justification unto Life on the other The whole Context at large explained and the Argument for Justification by the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ fully confirmed P. 464. Chap. 10. V. 3 4. explained and insisted on to the same purpose Pag. 489. 1 Cor. 1.30 Christ how of God made Righteousness unto us Answer of Bellarmine unto this Testimony removed That of Socinus disproved True sense of the words evinced P. 497. 2 Cor. 5.21 In what sense Christ knew no sin Emphasis in that expression How he was made Sin for us By the Imputation of Sin unto him Mistakes of some about this expression Sense of the Antients Exception of Bellarmine unto this Testimony answered with other Reasonings of his to the same purpose P. 502. The Exceptions of others also removed Gal. 2.16 Pag. 513. Ephes. 2.8 9 10. Ephes. 2.8 9 10. Evidence of this Testemony Design of the Apostle from the beginning of the Chapter Method of the Apostle in the Declaration of the Grace of God Grace alone the cause of Deliverance from a State of Sin Things to be observed in the Assignation of the Causes of Spiritual Deliverance Grace how magnified by him Force of the Argument and evidence from thence State of the Case here proposed by the Apostle General determination of it By Grace ye are saved What it is to be saved inquired into The same as to be justified but not exclusively The causes of our Justification declared Positively and Negatively The whole secured unto the Grace of God by Christ and our Interest therein through Faith alone Works excluded What Works Not Works of the Law of Moses Not Works antecedent unto believing Works of true Believers Not only in opposition to the Grace of God but to Faith in us Argument from those words Reason whereon this exclusion of Works is founded To exclude Boasting on our part Boasting wherein it consists Inseparable from the Interest of Works in Justification Danger of it Confirmation of this Reason obviating an Objection The Objection stated If we be not justified by Works of what use are they answered Pag. 516. Phil. 3.8 9. Heads of Argument from this Testimony Design of the Context Righteousness the Foundation of Acceptance with God A twofold Righteousness considered by the Apostle Oppossite unto one another as unto the especial end inquired after Which of these he adhered unto his own Righteousness or the Righteousness of God declared by the Apostle with vehemency of speech Reasons of his earnestness herein The turning point whereon he left Judaism The opposition made unto this Doctrine by the Jews The weight of the Doctrine and unwillingness of Men to receive it His own sense of Sin and Grace Peculiar expressions used in this place for the Reasons mentioned concerning Christ. Concerning all things that are our own The choice to be made on the Case stated whether we will adhere unto our own Righteousness or that of Christs which are inconsistent as to the end of Justification Argument from this place Exceptions unto this Testimony and Argument from thence removed Our Personal Righteousness Inherent the same with respect unto the Law and Gospel External Righteousness only required by the Law an impious Imagination Works wrought before Faith only rejected The Exception removed Righteousness before Conversion not intended by the Apostle Pag. 256. CHAP. XIX Objections against the Doctrine of Justification by the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ. Nature of these Objections Difficulty in discerning aright the sense of some Men in this Argument Justification by Works the end of all declension from the Righteousness of Christ. Objections against this Doctrine derived from a supposition thereof alone First principal Objection Imputed Righteousness overthrows the necessity of an holy Life This Objection as managed by them of the Church of Rome an open calumny How insisted on by some among our selves Socinus fierceness in this charge His foul dishonesty therein False charges on Mens opinions making way for the rash condemnation of their persons Iniquity of such censures The Objection rightly stated Sufficiently answered in the previous Discourses about the nature of Faith and force of Moral Law The nature and necessity of Evangelical Holiness elswhere pleaded Particular answers unto this Objection All who profess this Doctrine do not exemplifie it in their lives The most holy Truths have been abused None by whom this Doctrine is now denied exceed them in holiness by whom it was formerly professed and the power of it attested The contrary Doctrine not successful in the Reformation of the lives of Men. The best way to determine this difference The same Objection managed against the Doctrine of the Apostle in his own days Efficacious prejudices against this Doctrine in the minds of Men. The whole Doctrine of
Apprehensions who cryed Sirs What must I do to be saved 2. With respect unto this state and condition of men or men in this state and condition the enquiry is What that is upon the account whereof God pardoneth all their sins receiveth them into his favour declareth or pronounceth them Righteous and acquitted from all Guilt removes the Curse and turneth away all his wrath from them giving them Right and Title unto a blessed Immortality or life Eternal This is that alone wherein the Consciences of sinners in this estate are concerned Nor do they enquire after any thing but what they may have to oppose unto or answer the Justice of God in the commands and curse of the Law and what they may betake themselves unto for the obtaining of Acceptance with him unto life and salvation That the Apostle doth thus and no otherwise state this whole matter and in an Answer unto this Enquiry declare the nature of Justification and all the causes of it in the third and fourth Chapters of the Epistle to the Romans and elswhere shall be afterwards declared and proved And we shall also manifest that the Apostle James in the second Chapter of his Epistle doth not speak unto this Enquiry nor give an Answer unto it but it is of Justification in another sense and to another purpose whereof he treateth And whereas we cannot either safely or usefully treat of this Doctrine but with respect unto the same Ends for which it is declared and whereunto it is applied in the Scripture we should not by any pretences be turned aside from attending unto this Case and its Resolution in all our Discourses on this subject For it is the Direction Satisfaction and peace of the Consciences of men and not the curiosity of Notions or subtilty of Disputations which it is our Duty to design And therefore I shall as much as possibly I may avoid all those Philosophical Terms and Distinctions wherewith this Evangelical Doctrine hath been perplexed rather than illustrated For more weight is to be put on the steady Guidance of the Mind and Conscience of one Believer really exercised about the Foundation of his peace and acceptance with God then on the confutation of ten wrangling Disputers 3. Now the Enquiry on what account or for what Cause and Reason a man may be so acquitted or discharged of sin and accepted with God as before declared doth necessarily issue in this Whether it be any thing in our selves as our Faith and Repentance the Renovation of our Natures inherent habits of Grace and actual works of Righteousness which we have done or may do or whether it be the Obedience Righteousness Satisfaction and Merit of the Son of God our Mediator and Surety of the Covenant imputed unto us One of these it must be namely something that is our own which whatever may be the Influence of the Grace of God into it or causality of it because wrought in and by us is inherently our own in a proper sense or something which being not our own not inherent in us not wrought by us is yet imputed unto us for the pardon of our sins and the Acceptation of our Persons as righteous or the making of us Righteous in the sight of God Neither are these things capable of mixture or composition Rom. 11.6 Which of these it is the Duty Wisdome and safety of a convinced sinner to rely upon and trust unto in his Appearance before God is the sum of our present Enquiry 4. The way whereby sinners do or ought to betake themselves unto this Relief on supposition that it is the Righteousness of Christ and how they come to be partakers of or interested in that which is not inherently their own unto as good Benefit and as much Advantage as if it were their own is of a distinct consideration And as this also is clearly determined in the Scripture so it is acknowledged in the Experience of all them that do truly believe Neither are we in this matter much to regard the senses or arguings of men who were never throughly convinced of sin nor have ever in their own persons fled for Refuge unto the Hope set before them 5. These things I say are always to be attended unto in our whole Disquisition into the nature of Evangelical Justification For without a constant respect unto them we shall quickly wander into curious and perplexed Questions wherein the Consciences of guilty Sinners are not concerned and which therefore really belong not unto the substance or truth of this Doctrine nor are to be immixed therewith It is alone the Relief of those who are in themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 guilty before or obnoxious and liable to the Judgment of God that we enquire after That this is not any thing in or of themselves nor can so be that it is a Provision without them made in infinite Wisdom and Grace by the mediation of Christ his Obedience and Death therein is secured in the Scripture against all contradiction And it is the fundamental Principle of the Gospel Math. 11.28 6. It is confessed that many things for the Declaration of the Truth and the order of the Dispensation of Gods Grace herein are necessarily to be insisted on such are the nature of Justifying Faith the place and use of it in Justification the Causes of the new Covenant the true notion of the Mediation and Suretiship of Christ and the like which shall all of them be enquired into But beyond what tends directly unto the Guidance of the Minds and satisfaction of the Souls of Men who seek after a stable and abiding foundation of Acceptance with God we are not easily to be drawn unless we are free to lose the Benefit and Comfort of this most important Evangelical Truth in needless and unprofitable contentions And amongst many other miscarriages which men are subject unto whilst they are conversant about these things this in an especial manner is to be avoided 1. For the Doctrine of Justification is directive of Christian Practice and in no other Evangelical Truth is the whole of our Obedience more concerned For the Foundation Reasons and Motives of all our Duty towards God are contained therein Wherefore in order unto the due improvement of them ought it to be taught and not otherwise That which alone we aim or ought so to do to learn in it and by it is how we may get and maintain peace with God and so to live unto him as to be accepted with him in what we do To satisfie the Minds and Consciences of men in these things is this Doctrine to be taught Wherefore to carry it out of the understandings of ordinary Christians by speculative notions and distinctions is disserviceable unto the Faith of the Church Yea the mixing of Evangelical Revelations with Philosophical Notions hath been in sundry Ages the Poison of Religion Pretence of accuracy and artificial skill in Teaching is that which giveth countenance unto such a
by the deeds of the Law shall no flesh be justified in his sight Rom. 3.20 However any may be justified in the sight of Men or Angels by their own Obedience or Deeds of the Law yet in His Sight none can be so Necessary it is unto any man who is to come unto a Trial in the sentence whereof he is greatly concern'd duely to consider the Judge before whom he is to appear and by whom his cause is finally to be determined And if we manage our Disputes about Justification without a continual regard unto Him by whom we must be cast or acquitted we shall not rightly apprehend what our Plea ought to be Wherefore the Greatness the Majesty the Holiness and Soveraign Authority of God are always to be present with us in a due sense of them when we enquire how we may be justified before him Yet is it hard to discern how the minds of some men are influenced by the consideration of these things in their fierce contests for the Interest of their own works in their Justification precibus aut precio ut in aliqua parte haereant But the Scripture doth represent unto us what thoughts of him and of themselves not only Sinners but Saints also have had and cannot but have upon near Discoveries and effectual Conceptions of God and his Greatness Thoughts hereof ensuing on a sense of the guilt of sin filled our first Parents with fear and shame and put them on that foolish attempt of hiding themselves from him Nor is the wisdom of their posterity one jot better under their Convictions without a discovery of the Promise That alone makes sinners wise which tenders them relief At present the Generality of men are secure and do not much question but that they shall come off well enough one way or other in the Trial they are to undergo And as such persons are altogether indifferent what Doctrine concerning Justification is taught and received so for the most part for themselves they encline unto that Declaration of it which best suits their own Reason as influenced with self-conceit and corrupt Affections The sum hereof is that what they cannot do themselves what is wanting that they may be saved be it more or less shall one way or other be made up by Christ either the use or the abuse of which perswasion is the greatest fountain of sin in the world next unto the Depravation of our nature And whatever be or may be pretended unto the contrary Persons not convinced of sin not humbled for it are in all their Ratiocinations about spiritual things under the conduct of Principles so vitiated and corrupted See Mat. 18.3 4. But when God is pleased by any means to manifest his Glory unto sinners all their presidences and contrivances do issue in dreadful horrour and distress An account of their Temper is given us Isa. 33.14 The sinners in Sion are afraid fearfulness hath surprized the Hypocrites who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire who among us shall dwell with Everlasting burnings Nor is it thus only with some peculiar sort of sinners The same will be the Thoughts of all guilty persons at some time or another For those who through sensuality security or superstition do hide themselves from the vexation of them in this world will not fail to meet with them when their Terrour shall be encreased and become remediless Our God is a consuming fire and men will one day find how vain it is to set their Briars and Thorns against him in battle array And we may see what extravagant contrivances convinced sinners will put themselves upon under any real view of the Majesty and Holiness of God Micah 6.6 7. Wherewith saith one of them shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the high God shall I come before him with Burnt-offerings with Calves of a year old will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams or with ten thousands of Rivers of Oyl shall I give my first born for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my Soul Neither shall I ever think them meet to be contended withall about the Doctrine of Justification who take no notice of these things but rather despise them This is the proper effect of the Conviction of sin strengthened and sharpened with the consideration of the Terrour of the Lord who is to judge concerning it And this is that which in the Papacy meeting with an Ignorance of the Righteousness of God hath produced innumerable superstitious Inventions for the appeasing of the Consciences of men who by any means fall under the Disquietments of such Convictions For they quickly see that none of the Obedience which God requireth of them as it is performed by them will justifie them before this high and holy God Wherefore they seek for shelter in contrivances about things that he hath not commanded to try if they can put a cheat upon their Consciences and find relief in Diversions Nor is it thus only with profligate sinners upon their Convictions but the best of men when they have had near and efficacious Representations of the Greatness Holiness and Glory of God have been cast into the deepest self-abasement and most serious Renunciations of all trust or confidence in themselves So the Prophet Isaiah upon his vision of the Glory of the Holy One cried out Woe is me I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips chap. 6.5 nor was he relieved but by an Evidence of the free pardon of sin ver 7. So Holy Job in all his contests with his Friends who charged him with Hypocrisie and his being a sinner guilty in a peculiar manner above other men with assured confidence and perseverance therein justified his sincerity his Faith and Trust in God against their whole charge and every parcel of it And this he doth with such a full satisfaction of his own Integrity as that not only he insists at large on his vindication but frequently appeals unto God himself as unto the Truth of his Plea For he directly pursues that counsel with great Assurance which the Apostle James so long after gives unto all Believers nor is the Doctrine of that Apostle more eminently exemplified in any one instance throughout the whole Scripture then in him For he sheweth his Faith by his works and pleads his Justification thereby As Job Justified himself and was Justified by his works so we allow it the Duty of every Believer to be His plea for Justification by works in the sense wherein it is so was the most noble that ever was in the world nor was ever any controversie managed upon a greater occasion At length this Job is called into the immediate presence of God to plead his own cause not now as stated between him and his Friends whether he were an Hypocrite or no or whether his Faith or Trust in God was sincere but as it was stated between God and him wherein he seemed to
they would quickly discern such an imperfection in the best of their Duties such a frequency of sinful irregularities in their Minds and disorders in their Affections such an unsuitableness in all that they are and do from the inward frames of their Hearts unto all their outward actions unto the Greatness and Holiness of God as would abate their confidence in placing any Trust in their own Righteousness for their Justification By means of these and the like presumptuous conceptions of unenlightened minds the Consciences of men are kept off from being affected with a due sense of sin and a serious consideration how they may obtain acceptance before God Neither the consideration of the Holiness or Terrour of the Lord nor the severity of the Law as it indispensibly requireth a Righteousness in compliance with its commands nor the promise of the Gospel declaring and tendring a Righteousness the Righteousness of God in answer thereunto nor the uncertainty of their own minds upon Trials and Surprizals as having no stable ground of Peace to Anchor on nor the constant secret disquietment of their Consciences if not seared or hardened through the deceitfulness of sin can prevail with them whose thoughts are prepossessed with such slight conceptions of the state and guilt of sin to fly for Refuge unto the only hope that is set before them or really and distinctly to comport with the only way of Deliverance and Salvation Wherefore if we would either teach or learn the Doctrine of Justification in a due manner a clear apprehension of the Greatness of our Apostasie from God a due sense of the Guilt of sin a deep Experience of its power all with respect unto the Holiness and Law of God are necessary unto us We have nothing to do in this matter with men who through the Feavor of Pride have lost the Understanding of their own miserable condition For Natura sic apparet vitiata ut hoc majoris vitij sit non videre Austin The whole need not the Physician but the sick Those who are pricked unto the Heart for sin and cry out what shall we do to be saved will understand what we have to say Against others we must defend the Truth as God shall enable And it may be made good by all sorts of Instances That as men rise in their notions about the extenuation of sin so they fall in their regard unto the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it is no less true also on the other hand as Unbelief worketh in men a disesteem of the Person and Righteousness of Christ they are cast inevitably to seek for countenance unto their own Consciences in the extenuation of sin So insensibly are the minds of men diverted from Christ and seduced to place their confidence in themselves Some confused respect they have unto him as a Relief they know not how nor wherein but they live in that pretended height of humane Wisdom to trust to themselves So they are instructed to do by the best of the Philosophers Vnum bonum est quod beatae vitae causa firmamentum est tibi fidere Senec. Epist. 31. Hence also is the internal sanctifying Grace of God among many equally despised with the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ. The sum of their Faith and of their Arguments in the confirmation of it is given by the Learned Roman Oratour and Philosopher Virtutem saith he nemo unquam Deo acceptam retulit nimirum recte Propter virtutem enim jure laudamur in virtute recte gloriamur quod non contingeret si donum a Deo non a nobis haberemus Tull. de nat Deor. 4. The opposition that the Scripture makes between Grace and Works in general with the Exclusion of the one and the Assertion of the other in our Justification deserves a previous consideration The opposition intended is not made between Grace and Works or our own Obedience as unto their Essence Nature and Consistency in the order and method of our Salvation but only with respect unto our Justification I do not design herein to plead any particular Testimonies of Scripture as unto their especial sense or declaration of the mind of the Holy Ghost in them which will afterwards be with some Diligence enquired into but only to take a view which way the Eye of the Scripture guides our Apprehensions and what compliance there is in our own Experience with that Guidance The Principal seat of this Doctrine as will be confessed by all is in the Epistles of Paul unto the Romans and Galatians whereunto that also of the Hebrews may be added But in that unto the Romans it is most eminently declared For therein is it handled by the Apostle ex professo at large and that both Doctrinally and in the way of controversie with them by whom the Truth was opposed And it is worth our consideration what process he makes towards the Declaration of it and what principles he proceeds upon therein 1. He lays it down as the fundamental maxime which he would proceed upon or as a general Thesis including the substance of what he designed to explain and prove that in the Gospel the Righteousness of God is revealed from Faith to Faith as it is written the Just shall live by Faith chap. 1.17 All sorts of men who had any knowledge of God and themselves were then as they must be always enquiring and in one Degree or other labouring after Righteousness For this they looked on and that justly as the only means of an Advantagious Relation between God and themselves Neither had the Generality of men any other thoughts but that this Righteousness must be their own inherent in them and performed by them as Rom. 10.3 For as this is the Language of a natural Conscience and of the Law and suited unto all Philosophical notions concerning the nature of Righteousness so whatever Testimony was given of another kind in the Law and the Prophets as such a Testimony is given unto a Righteousness of God without the Law chap. 3.21 there was a Veil upon it as to the understanding of all sorts of men As therefore Righteousness is that which all men seek after and cannot but seek after who design or desire Acceptance with God so it is in vain to enquire of the Law of a natural Conscience of Philosophical Reason after any Righteousness but what consists in inherent Habits and Acts of our own Neither Law nor natural Conscience nor Reason do know any other But in opposition unto this Righteousness of our own and the necesssity thereof testified unto by the Law in its Primitive constitution by the natural Light of Conscience and the apprehension of the nature of things by Reason the Apostle declares that in the Gospel there is revealed another Righteousness which is also the Righteousness of another the Righteousness of God and that from Faith to Faith For not only is the Righteousness it self revealed aliene from those other Principles
and Expressions as are so far from being in the Scripture as that it is odds they had never been in the world had they escaped Aristotles Mint or that of the Schools deriving from him And thus although a sufficient Answer hath frequently enough if any thing can be so been returned unto this Objection in Bellarmine yet hath one of late amongst our selves made the Translation of it into English to be the substance of the first Chapter of a Book about Justification though he needed not to have given such an early intimation unto whom he is beholding for the greatest part of his ensuing Discourse unless it be what is taken up in despightful reviling of other men For take from him what is not his own on the one hand and impertinent cavils at the words and expression of other men with forged imputations on some of them on the other and his whole Book will disappear But yet although he affirms that none of the Protestant Writers who speak of the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ unto us which were all of them without exception until of late have precisely kept to the form of wholesome Words but have rather swerved and varied from the Language of the Scripture yet he will excuse them from open Errour if they intend no more thereby but that we are made partakers of the benefits of the Righteousness of Christ. But if they intend that the Righteousness of Christ it self is imputed unto us that is so as to be our Righteousness before God whereon we are pardoned and accepted with him or do receive the forgiveness of sins and a right to the Heavenly Inheritance then are they guilty of that Errour which makes us to be esteemed to do our selves what Christ did and so on the other side Christ to have done what we do and did chap. 2 3. But these things are not so For if we are esteemed to have done any thing in our own persons it cannot be imputed unto us as done for us by another as it will appear when we shall treat of these things afterwards But the great and Holy Persons intended are as little concerned in the Accusations or Apologies of some Writers as those Writers seem to be acquainted with that Learning Wisdom and Judgment wherein they did excell and the Characters whereof are so eminently conspicuous in all their Writings But the Judgement of most Protestants is not only candidly expressed but approved of also by Bellarmine himself in another place Non esset saith he absurdum si quis diceret nobis imputari Christi justitiam merita cum nobis donentur applicentur ac si nos ipsi Deo satisfecissemus De Justif. lib. 2. cap. 10. It were not absurd if any one should say that the Righteousness and Merits of Christ are imputed unto us when they are given and applied unto us as if we our selves had satisfied God And this he confirms with that saying of Bernard and Innocent Epist. 190. Nam si unus pro omnibus mortuus est ergo omnes mortui sunt ut videlicet satisfactio unius omnibus imputetur sicut omnium peccata unus ille portavit And those who will acknowledge no more in this matter but only a Participation Quovis modo one way or other of the Benefits of the Obedience and Righteousness of Christ wherein we have the concurrence of the Socinians also might do well as I suppose plainly to deny all Imputation of his Righteousness unto us in any sense as they do seeing the Benefits of his Righteousness cannot be said to be imputed unto us what way soever we are made Partakers of them For to say that the Righteousness of Christ is imputed unto us with respect unto the Benefits of it when neither the Righteousness it self is imputed unto us nor can the Benefits of it be imputed unto us as we shall see afterwards doth minister great occasion of much needless variance and contests Neither do I know any Reason why men should seek countenance unto this Doctrine under such an Expression as themselves reflect upon as unscriptural if they be contented that their minds and sense should be clearly understood and apprehended For Truth needs no subterfuges The Socinians do now principally make use of this Objection For finding the whole Church of God in the use of sundry Expressions in the Declaration of the most important Truths of the Gospel that are not literally contained in the Scripture they hoped from an Advantage from thence in their opposition unto the things themselves Such are the Terms of the Trinity the Incarnation Satisfaction and Merit of Christ as this also of the Imputation of his Righteousness How little they have prevailed in the other Instances hath been sufficiently manifested by them with whom they have had to do But as unto that part of this Objection which concerns the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ unto Believers those by whom it is asserted do say 1. That it is the Thing alone intended which they plead for If that be not contained in the Scripture if it be not plainly taught and confirmed therein they will speedily relinquish it But if they can prove that the Doctrine which they intend in this expression and which is thereby plainly declared unto the understandings of men is a divine Truth sufficiently witnessed unto in the Scripture then is this expression of it reductively scriptural and the Truth it self so expressed a Divine Verity To deny this is to take away all use of the Interpretation of the Scripture and to overthrow the Ministry of the Church This therefore is to be alone enquired into 2. They say the same thing is taught and expressed in the Scripture in Phrases aequipollent For it affirms that by the Obedience of One that is Christ many are made Righteous Rom. 5.18 And that we are made Righteous by the Imputation of Righteousness unto us Blessed is the man unto whom God imputeth Righteousness without works chap. 4.6 And if we are made Righteous by the Imputation of Righteousness unto us that Obedience or Righteousness whereby we are made Righteous is imputed unto us And they will be content with this Expression of this Doctrine That the Obedience of Christ whereby we are made Righteous is the Righteousness that God imputeth unto us Wherefore this Objection is of no force to disadvantage the Truth pleaded for 2. Socinus objects in particular against this Doctrine of Justification by the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ and of his satisfaction that there is nothing said of it in the Evangelists nor in the Report of the Sermons of Christ unto the people no nor yet in those of his private Discourses with his Disciples And he urgeth it vehemently and at large against the whole of the Expiation of sin by his Death De Servator par 4. cap. 9. And as it is easie malis inventis pejora addere this notion of his is not only made
use of and pressed at large by one among our selves but improved also by a dangerous comparison between the Writings of the Evangelists and the other Writings of the New Testament For to enforce this Argument that the Histories of the Gospel wherein the Sermons of Christ are recorded do make no mention of the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ as in his judgement they do not nor of his Satisfaction or Merit or Expiation of sin or of Redemption by his Death as they do not in the judgment of Socinus it is added by him that for his part he is apt to admire our Saviours Sermons who was the Author of our Religion before the Writings of the Apostles though inspired men Whereunto many dangerous insinuations and reflections on the Writings of St. Paul contrary to the Faith and Sense of the Church in all Ages are subjoined S. pag. 240 241. But this Boldness is not only unwarrantable but to be abhorred What place of Scripture what Ecclesiastical Tradition what single president of any one sober Christian Writer what Theological Reason will countenance a man in making the comparison mentioned and so determining thereon such juvenile boldness such want of a due apprehension and understanding of the Nature of divine Inspirations with the order and design of the writing of the New Testament which are the springs of this precipitate censure ought to be reflected on At present to remove this pretence out of our way it may be observed 1. That what the Lord Christ taught his Disciples in his Personal Ministry on the Earth was suited unto that Oeconomy of the Church which was antecedent unto his Death and Resurrection Nothing did he with-hold from them that was needful to their Faith Obedience and Consolation in that state Many things he instructed them in out of the Scripture many new Revelations he made unto them and many times did he occasionally instruct and rectifie their judgements Howbeit he made no clear distinct Revelation of those sacred mysteries unto them which are peculiar unto the Faith of the New Testament nor were to be distinctly apprehended before his Death and Resurrection 2. What the Lord Christ revealed afterwards by his Spirit unto the Apostles was no less immediately from himself then was the Truth which he spoke unto them with his own mouth in the days of his flesh An Apprehension to the contrary is destructive of Christian Religion The Epistles of the Apostles are no less Christs Sermons then that which he delivered on the Mount Wherefore 3. Neither in the things themselves nor in the way of their Delivery or Revelation is there any Advantage of the one sort of Writings above the other The things written in the Epistles proceed from the same Wisdom the same Grace the same Love with the things which he spoke with his own mouth in the days of his flesh and are of the same divine veracity Authority and Efficacy The Revelation which he made by his Spirit is no less divine and immediate from himself then what he spoke unto his Disciples on the Earth To distinguish between these things on any of these accounts is intolerable folly 4. The Writings of the Evangelists do not contain the whole of all the Instructions which the Lord Christ gave unto his Disciples personally on the Earth For he was seen of them after his Resurrection forty days and spoke with them of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God Act. 1.3 And yet nothing hereof is recorded in their writings but only some few occasional speeches Nor had he given before unto them a clear and distinct understanding of those things which were delivered concerning his Death and Resurrection in the Old Testament as is plainly declared Luke 24.25 26 27. For it was not necessary for them in that state wherein they were Wherefore 5. As to the extent of Divine Revelations objectively those which he granted by his Spirit unto his Apostles after his Ascension were beyond those which he Personally taught them so far as they are recorded in the Writings of the Evangelists For he told them plainly not long before his death that he had many things to say unto them which then they could not bear Joh. 16.12 And for the knowledge of those things he refers them to the coming of the Spirit to make Revelation of them from himself in the next words Howbeit when he the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all Truth for he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak and he will shew you things to come He shall glorifie me for he shall receive of mine and shew it unto you ver 13 14. And on this account he had told them before that it was expedient for them that he should go away that the Holy Spirit might come unto them whom he would send from the Father ver 7. Hereunto he referred the full and clear manifestation of the mysteries of the Gospel So false as well as dangerous and scandalous are those insinuations of Socinus and his followers Secondly The Writings of the Evangelists are full unto their proper Ends and Purposes These were to record the Genealogy Conception Birth Acts Miracles and Teachings of our Saviour so far as to evince him to be the true only promised Messias So he testifieth who wrote the last of them Many other signs truly did Jesus which are not written in this Book But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God Joh. 20.30 31. Unto this End every thing is recorded by them that is needful unto the ingenerating and establishment of Faith Upon this confirmation all things declared in the Old Testament concerning him all that was taught in Types and Sacrifices became the object of Faith in that sense wherein they were interpreted in the Accomplishment And that in them this Doctrine was before revealed shall be proved afterwards It is therefore no wonder if some things and those of the highest importance should be declared more fully in other Writings of the New Testament then they are in those of the Evangelists Thirdly The Pretence it self is wholly false For there are as many pregnant Testimonies given unto this Truth in one alone of the Evangelists as in any other Book of the New Testament namely in the Book of John I shall refer to some of them which will be pleaded in their proper place chap. 1.12 17 19. chap. 3.14 15 16 17 18 36. chap. 5.24 But we may pass this by as one of those Inventions concerning which Socinus boasts in his Epistle to Michael Vajoditus that his Writings were esteemed by many for the singularity of the things asserted in them Fourthly The Difference that hath been among Protestant Writers about this Doctrine is pleaded in the prejudice of it Osiander in the entrance of the Reformation fell into a vain imagination that we were Justified or made Righteous with the Essential
Righteousness of God communicated unto us by Jesus Christ. And whereas he was opposed herein with some severity by the most learned persons of those days to countenance himself in his singularity he pretended that there were twenty different Opinions amongst the Protestants themselves about the formal cause of our Justification before God This was quickly laid hold on by them of the Roman Church and is urged as a prejudice against the whole Doctrine by Bellarmine Vasquez and others But the vanity of this pretence of his hath been sufficiently discovered and Bellarmine himself could fancy but four Opinions among them that seemed to be different from one another reckoning that of Osiander for one De Justificat lib. 2. cap. 1. But whereas he knew that the Imagination of Osiander was exploded by them all the other three that he mentions are indeed but distinct parts of the same entire Doctrine Wherefore until of late it might be truly said that the Faith and Doctrine of all Protestants was in this Article entirely the same For however they differed in the way manner and methods of its Declaration and too many private men were addicted unto Definitions and Descriptions of their own under pretence of Logical accuracy in Teaching which gave an appearance of some contradiction among them yet in this they generally agreed that it is the Righteousness of Christ and not our own on the account whereof we receive the pardon of sin acceptance with God are declared Righteous by the Gospel and have a Right and Title unto the Heavenly Inheritance Hereon I say they were generally agreed first against the Papists and afterwards against the Socinians and where this is granted I will not contend with any man about his way of declaring the Doctrine of it And that I may add it by the way we have herein the concurrence of the Fathers of the Primitive Church For although by Justification following the Etymology of the Latine word they understood the making us Righteous with internal personal Righteousness at least some of them did so as Austin in particular yet that we are pardoned and accepted with God on any other account but that of the Righteousness of Christ they believed not And whereas especially in their Controversie with the Pelagians after the rising of that Heresie they plead vehemently that we are made Righteous by the Grace of God changing our Hearts and Natures and creating in us a principle of spiritual Life and Holiness and not by the endeavours of our own free will or works performed in the strength thereof their words and expressions have been abused contrary to their Intention and Design For we wholly concur with them and subscribe unto all that they dispute about the making of us personally Righteous and holy by the effectual Grace of God against all merit of works and operations of our own free Will our Sanctification being every way as much of Grace as our Justification properly so called and that in opposition unto the common Doctrine of the Roman Church about the same matter only they call this our being made inherently and personally Righteous by Grace sometimes by the name of Justification which we do not And this is laid hold on as an Advantage by those of the Roman Church who do not concur with them in the way and manner whereby we are so made Righteous But whereas by our Justification before God we intend only that Righteousness whereon our sins are pardoned wherewith we are made Righteous in his sight or for which we are accepted as Righteous before him it will be hard to find any of them assigning of it unto any other causes then the Protestants do So it is fallen out that what they design to prove we entirely comply with them in but the way and manner whereby they prove it is made use of by the Papists unto another End which they intended not But as to the way and manner of the Declaration of this Doctrine among Protestants themselves there ever was some variety and Difference in Expressions Nor will it otherwise be whilst the Abilities and Capacities of men whether in the conceiving of things of this nature or in the expression of their conceptions are so various as they are And it is acknowledged that these Differences of late have had by some as much weight laid upon them as the substance of the Doctrine generally agreed in Hence some have composed entire Books consisting almost of nothing but impertinent Cavils at other Mens Words and Expressions But these things proceed from the weakness of some men and other vitious habits of their minds and do not belong unto the cause it self And such Persons as for me shall write as they do and fight on until they are weary Neither hath the multiplication of Questions and the curious discussion of them in the handling of this Doctrine wherein nothing ought to be diligently insisted on but what is directive of our practice been of much use unto the Truth it self though it hath not been directly opposed in them That which is of real Difference among Persons who agree in the substance of the Doctrine may be reduced unto a very few Heads As 1 There is something of this kind about the nature of Faith whereby we are justified with its proper Object in Justifying and its Use in Justification And an Instance we have herein not only of the weakness of our Intellects in the Apprehension of spiritual things but also of the remainders of confusion and disorder in our minds at least how true it is that we know only in part and prophesie only in part whilst we are in this life For whereas this Faith is an Act of our minds put forth in the way of Duty to God yet many by whom it is sincerely exercised and that continually are not agreed either in the nature or proper object of it Yet is there no doubt but that some of them who differ amongst themselves about these things have delivered their minds free from the prepossession of prejudices and notions derived from other artificial Reasonings imposed on them and do really express their own conceptions as to the best and utmost of their Experience And notwithstanding this Difference they do yet all of them please God in the exercise of Faith as it is their Duty and have that respect unto its proper Object as secures both their Justification and Salvation And if we cannot on this consideration bear with and forbear one another in our different conceptions and expressions of those conceptions about these things it is a sign we have a great mind to be contentious and that our confidences are built on very weak foundations For my part I had much rather my Lot should be found among them who do really believe with the heart unto Righteousness though they are not able to give a tolerable Definition of Faith unto others then among them who can endlesly dispute about it with seeming
Accuracy and Skill but are negligent in the exercise of it as their own Duty Wherefore some things shall be briefly spoken of in this matter to declare my own apprehensions concerning the things mentioned without the least design to contradict or oppose the conceptions of others 2. There hath been a Controversie more directly stated among some Learned Divines of the reformed Churches for the Lutherans are unanimous on the one side about the Righteousness of Christ that is said to be imputed unto us For some would have this to be only his suffering of Death and the satisfaction which he made for sin thereby and others include therein the Obedience of his life also The occasion original and progress of this controversie the persons by whom it hath been managed with the writings wherein it is so and the various ways that have been endeavoured for its Reconciliation are sufficiently known unto all who have enquired into these things Neither shall I immix my self herein in the way of controversie or in opposition unto others though I shall freely declare my own Judgement in it so far as the consideration of the Righteousness of Christ under this distinction is inseparable from the substance of the Truth it self which I plead for 3. Some Difference there hath been also whether the Righteousness of Christ imputed unto us or the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ may be said to be the formal cause of our Justification before God wherein there appears some variety of Expression among Learned men who have handled this subject in the way of controversie with the Papists The true Occasion of the Differences about this Expression hath been this and no other Those of the Roman Church do constantly assert that the Righteousness whereby we are Righteous before God is the formal cause of our Justification And this Righteousness they say is our own inherent Personal Righteousness and not the Righteousness of Christ imputed unto us Wherefore they treat of this whole controversie namely what is the Righteousness on the account whereof we are accepted with God or justified under the name of the formal cause of Justification which is the subject of the second Book of Bellarmine concerning Justification In opposition unto them some Protestants contending that the Righteousness wherewith we are esteemed Righteous before God and accepted with him is the Righteousness of Christ imputed unto us and not our own inherent imperfect Personal Righteousness they have done it under this enquiry namely what is the formal cause of our Justification which some have said to be the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ some the Righteousness of Christ imputed But what they designed herein was not to resolve this Controversie into a Philosophical enquiry about the nature of a formal cause but only to prove that that truly belonged unto the Righteousness of Christ in our Justification which the Papists ascribed unto our own under that name That there is an habitual infused habit of Grace which is the formal cause of our personal inherent Righteousness they grant But they all deny that God pardons our sins and justifies our persons with respect unto this Righteousness as the formal cause thereof Nay they deny that in the Justification of a sinner there either is or can be any inherent formal cause of it And what they mean by a formal cause in our Justification is only that which gives the denomination unto the subject as the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ doth to a person that he is justified Wherefore notwithstanding the differences that have been among some in the various expression of their conceptions the substance of the Doctrine of the Reformed Churches is by them agreed upon and retained entire For they all agree that God justifieth no sinner absolveth him not from Guilt nor declareth him Righteous so as to have a Title unto the Heavenly Inheritance but with respect unto a true and perfect Righteousness as also that this Righteousness is truly the Righteousness of him that is so justified That this Righteousness becometh ours by Gods free Grace and Donation the way on our part whereby we come to be really and effectually interested therein being Faith alone And that this is the perfect Obedience or Righteousness of Christ imputed unto us In these things as they shall be afterwards distinctly explained is contained the whole of that Truth whose Explanation and Confirmation is the Design of the ensuing Discourse And because those by whom this Doctrine in the substance of it is of late impugned derive more from the Socinians then the Papists and make a nearer approach unto their principles I shall chiefly insist on the examination of those Original Authors by whom their notions were first coined and whose weapons they make use of in their defence Eighthly To close these previous Discourses it is worthy our consideration what weight was laid on this Doctrine of Justification at the first Reformation and what Influence it had into the whole work thereof However the minds of men may be changed as unto sundry Doctrines of Faith among us yet none can justly own the name of Protestant but he must highly value the first Reformation And they cannot well do otherwise whose present even temporal Advantages are resolved thereinto However I intend none but such as own an especial presence and Guidance of God with them who were eminently and successfully employed therein Such persons cannot but grant that their Faith in this matter and the concurrence of their Thoughts about its Importance are worthy consideration Now it is known that the Doctrine of Justification gave the first occasion to the whole work of Reformation and was the main hinge whereon it turned This those mentioned declared to be Articulus stantis aut cadentis Ecclesiae and that the vindication thereof alone deserved all the pains that was taken in the whole endeavour of Reformation But things are now and that by virtue of their Doctrine herein much changed in the World though it be not so understood or acknowledged In general no small Benefit redounded unto the World by the Reformation even among them by whom it was not nor is received though many bluster with contrary pretensions For all the Evils which have accidentally ensued thereon arising most of them from the corrupt Passions and Interests of them by whom it hath been opposed are usually ascribed unto it and all the Light Liberty and Benefit of the Minds of men which it hath introduced are ascribed unto other causes But this may be signally observed with respect unto the Doctrine of Justification with the causes and effects of its Discovery and Vindication For the first Reformers found their own and the Consciences of other men so immersed in darkness so pressed and harrassed with fears terrours and disquietments under the power of it and so destitute of any steady Guidance into the ways of peace with God as that with all diligence like persons sensible
that herein their Spiritual and Eternal Interest was concerned they made their Enquiries after the Truth in this matter which they knew must be the only means of their Deliverance All men in those days were either kept in Bondage under endless Fears and Anxieties of mind upon the convictions of sin or sent for Relief unto Indulgences Priestly Pardons Pennances Pilgrimages works satisfactory of their own and supererogatory of others or kept under Chains of Darkness for Purgatory unto the last day Now he is no way able to compare things past and present who fees not how great an Alteration is made in these things even in the Papal Church For before the Reformation whereby the Light of the Gospel especially in this Doctrine of Justification was diffused among men and shone even into their minds who never comprehended nor received it the whole almost of Religion among them was taken up with and confined unto these things And to instigate men unto an abounding sedulity in the observation of them their minds were stuffed with Traditions and Stories of Visions Apparitions frightful Spirits and other Imaginations that poor mortals are apt to be amazed withall and which their restless disquietments gave countenance unto Somnia terrores Magici miracula sagae Nocturni Lemures portentaque Thessala Were the principal objects of their Creed and matter of their Religious Conversation That very Church it self is comparatively at ease from these things unto what it was before the Reformation though so much of them is still retained as to blind the Eyes of men from discerning the Necessity as well as the Truth of the Evangelical Doctrine of Justification It is fallen out herein not much otherwise then it did at the first Entrance of Christianity into the world For there was an Emanation of Light and Truth from the Gospel which affected the minds of men by whom yet the whole of it in its general Design was opposed and persecuted For from thence the very vulgar sort of men became to have better apprehensions and notions of God and his properties or the Original and Rule of the Universe then they had arrived unto in the midnight of their Paganism And a sort of learned speculative men there were who by virtue of that Light of Truth which sprung from the Gospel and was now diffused into the minds of men reformed and improved the old Philosophy discarding many of those falshoods and impertinencies wherewith it had been encumbred But when this was done they still maintained their cause on the old principles of the Philosophers and indeed their opposition unto the Gospel was far more plausible and pleadable than it was before For after they had discarded the gross conceptions of the common sort about the divine Nature and Rule and had blended the Light of Truth which brake forth in Christian Religion with their own Philosophical notions they made a vigorous Attempt for the reinforcement of Heathenism against the main Design of the Gospel And things have not as I said fallen out much otherwise in the Reformation For as by the Light of Truth which therein brake forth the Consciences of even the vulgar sort are in some measure freed from those Childish Affrightments which they were before in Bondage unto so those who are Learned have been enabled to reduce the Opinions and Practices of their Church into a more defensible posture and make their Opposition unto the Truths of the Gospel more plausible than they formerly were Yea that Doctrine which in the way of its Teaching and Practice among them as also in its effects on the Consciences of men was so horrid as to drive innumerable persons from their Communion in that and other things also is now in the new Representation of it with the artificial covering provided for its former effects in practice thought an Argument meet to be pleaded for a return unto its entire Communion But to root out the Superstitions mentioned out of the minds of men to communicate unto them the knowledge of the Righteousness of God which is revealed from Faith to Faith and thereby to deliver them from their bondage fears and distress directing convinced sinners unto the only way of solid peace with God did the first Reformers labour so diligently in the Declaration and Vindication of the Evangelical Doctrine of Justification and God was with them And it is worth our consideration whether we should on every cavil and sophism of men not so taught not so employed not so tryed not so owned of God as they were and in whose Writings there are not appearing such Characters of Wisdom sound Judgment and deep Experience as in theirs easily part with that Doctrine of Truth wherein alone they found peace unto their own Souls and whereby they were instrumental to give liberty and peace with God unto the Souls and Consciences of others innumerable accompanied with the visible effects of Holiness of Life and fruitfulness in the works of Righteousness unto the praise of God by Jesus Christ. In my judgment Luther spake the truth when he said amisso Articulo Justificationis simul amissa est tota Doctrina Christiana And I wish he had not been a true Prophet when he foretold that in the following Ages the Doctrine hereof would be again obscured the Causes whereof I have elsewhere enquired into Some late Writers indeed among the Protestants have endeavoured to reduce the controversie about Justification with the Papists unto an Appearance of a far less real Difference then is usually judged to be in it And a good work it is no doubt to pare off all unnecessary occasions of Debate and Differences in Religion provided we go not so near the Quick as to let out any of its vital Spirits The way taken herein is to proceed upon some Concessions of the most sober among the Papists in their Ascriptions unto Grace and the Merit of Christ on the one side and the express judgment of the Protestants variously delivered of the necessity of good works to them that are justified Besides it appears that in different expressions which either party adhere unto as it were by Tradition the same things are indeed intended Among them who have laboured in this kind Ludovicus le Blanc for his perspicuity and plainness his moderation and freedom from a contentious frame of Spirit is pene solus legi dignus He is like the Ghost of Tiresias in this matter But I must needs say that I have not seen the effect that might be desired of any such undertaking For when each party comes unto the Interpretation of their own Concessions which is ex communi jure to be allowed unto them and which they will be sure to do in compliance with their Judgment in the substance of the Doctrine wherein the main stress of the Difference lies the distance and breach continue as Wide as ever they were Nor is there the least ground towards peace obtained by any of our condescensions or
compliances herein For unless we can come up entirely unto the Decrees and Canons of the Council of Trent wherein the Doctrine of the Old and New Testament is anathematized they will make no other use of any mens compliances but only to encrease the clamour of Differences among our selves I mention nothing of this nature to hinder any man from granting whatever he can or please unto them without the prejudice of the substance of Truths professed in the Protestant Churches but only to intimate the uselessness of such concessions in order unto Peace and Agreement with them whilst they have a Procrustes Bed to lay us upon and from whose size they will not recede Here and there one not above three or four in all may be named within this hundred and thirty years in the Roman Communion have owned our Doctrine of Justification for the substance of it So did Albertus Pighius and the Antidagma Coloniense as Bellarmin acknowledges And what he says of Pighius is true as we shall see afterwards the other I have not seen Cardinal Contarenus in a Treatise of Justification written before and published about the Beginning of the Trent Council delivereth himself in the favour of it But upon the observation of what he had done some say he was shortly after poisoned though I must confess I know not where they had the Report But do what we can for the sake of Peace as too much cannot be done for it with the safety of Truth it cannot be denied but that the Doctrine of Justification as it works effectually in the Church of Rome is the Foundation of many Enormities among them both in Judgment and Practice They do not continue I acknowledge in that visible predominancy and rage as formerly nor are the Generality of the people in so much slavish Bondage unto them as they were But the streams of them do still issue from this corrupt Fountain unto the dangerous Infection of the Souls of men For Missatical Expiatory Sacrifices for the living and the dead the necessity of Auricular Confession with Authoritative Absolution Penances Pilgrimages Sacramentals Indulgences Commutations Works Satisfactory and Supererogatory the Merit and Intercession of Saints departed with especial Devotions and Applications to this or that particular Saint or Angel Purgatory yea on the matter the whole of Monastick Devotion do depend thereon They are all nothing but ways invented to pacifie the Consciences of men or divert them from attending to the Charge which is given in against them by the Law of God sorry supplies they are of a Righteousness of their own for them who know not how to submit themselves to the Righteousness of God And if the Doctrine of free Justification by the Blood of Christ were once again exploded or corrupted and made unintelligible unto these things as absurd and foolish as now unto some they seem to be or what is not one jot better men must and will again betake themselves For if once they are diverted from putting their Trust in the Righteousness of Christ and Grace of God alone and do practically thereon follow after take up with or rest in that which is their own the first impressions of a sense of sin which shall befall their Consciences will drive them from their present hold to seek for shelter in any thing that tenders unto them the least Appearance of Relief Men may talk and dispute what they please whilst they are at peace in their own minds without a real sense either of sin or Righteousness yea and scoff at them who are not under the power of the same security But when they shall be awakened with other Apprehensions of things then yet they are aware of they will be put on new Resolutions And it is in vain to dispute with any about Justification who have not been duly convinced of a state of sin and of its Guilt for such men neither understand what they say nor that whereof they dogmatize We have therefore the same Reasons that the first Reformers had to be careful about the preservation of this Doctrine of the Gospel pure and entire though we may not expect the like success with them in our Endeavours unto that End For the minds of the Generality of men are in another posture then they were when they dealt with them Under the power of Ignorance and Superstition they were but yet multitudes of them affected with a sense of the Guilt of sin With us for the most part things are quite otherwise Notional Light accompanied with a senselessness of sin leads men unto a contempt of this Doctrine indeed of the whole mystery of the Gospel We have had Experience of the fruits of the Faith which we now plead for in this Nation for many years yea now for some Ages And it cannot well be denied but that those who have been most severely tenacious of the Doctrine of Justification by the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ have been the most exemplary in an Holy Life I speak of former days And if this Doctrine be yet further corrupted debased or unlearned among us we shall quickly fall into one of the Extreams wherewith we are at present urged on either side For although the Reliefs provided in the Church of Rome for the satisfaction of the consciences of men are at present by the most disliked yea despised yet if they are once brought to a loss how to place their whole trust and confidence in the Righteousness of Christ and Grace of God in him they will not always live at such an uncertainty of mind as the best of their own Personal Obedience will hang them on the Briars of but betake themselves unto somewhat that tenders them certain peace and security though at present it may seem foolish unto them And I doubt not but that some out of a meer Ignorance of the Righteousness of God which either they have not been taught or had no mind to learn have with some Integrity in the Exercise of their Consciences betaken themselves unto that pretended Rest which the Church of Rome offers unto them For being troubled about their sins they think it better to betake themselves unto that great variety of means for the ease and discharge of their Consciences which the Roman Church affords then to abide where they are without the least pretence of Relief as men will find in due time there is no such thing to be found or obtained in themselves They may go on for a time with good satisfaction unto their own minds but if once they are brought unto a loss through the Conviction of sin they must look beyond themselves for peace and satisfaction or sit down without them to Eternity Nor are the principles and ways which others take up withall in another Extream upon the Rejection of this Doctrine although more plausible yet at all more really useful unto the Souls of men then those of the Roman Church which they reject as obsolete
produce the effect of Justification by a physical operation nor can do so it being a pure Soveraign Act of God nor is morally any way meritorious thereof nor doth dispose the subject wherein it is unto the Introduction of an inherent formal cause of Justification there being no such thing in rerum natura nor hath any other Physical or moral respect unto the effect of Justification but what ariseth meerly from the constitution and appointment of God there is no Colour of Reason from the Instrumentality of Faith asserted to ascribe the Effect of Justification unto any but unto the principal efficient cause which is God alone and from whom it proceedeth in a way of free and soveraign Grace disposing the Order of things and the Relation of them one unto another as seemeth good unto him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 3.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 25. It is therefore the Ordinance of God prescribing our duty that we may be justified freely by his Grace having its use and operation towards that End after the manner of an Instrument as we shall see farther immediately Wherefore so far as I can discern they contribute nothing unto the real understanding of this Truth who deny Faith to be the instrumental cause of our Justification and on other Grounds assert it to be the Condition thereof unless they can prove that this is a more natural exposition of those expressions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the first thing to be enquired after For all that we do in this matter is but to endeavour a right understanding of Scripture propositions and expressions unless we intend to wander extra oleas and lose our selves in a maze of uncertain conjectures Secondly They designed to declare the use of Faith in Justification expressed in the Scripture by apprehending and receiving of Christ or his Righteousness and Remission of sins thereby The words whereby this use of Faith in our Justification is expressed are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the constant use of them in the Scripture is to take or receive what is offered tendered given or granted unto us or to apprehend and lay hold of any thing thereby to make it our own as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is also used in the same sense Heb. 2.16 So are we said by Faith to receive Christ Joh. 1.12 Col. 2.6 The Abundance of Grace and the Gift of Righteousness Rom. 5.17 The word of Promise Act. 2.41 The word of God Act. 8.14 1 Thes. 1.6 chap. 2.13 The Atonement made by the blood of Christ Rom. 5.11 The forgiveness of sins Act. 10.43 chap. 26.18 The Promise of the spirit Gal. 3.14 The Promises Heb. 9.15 There is therefore nothing that concurreth unto our Justification but we receive it by Faith And unbelief is expressed by not receiving Joh. 1.11 chap. 3.11 chap. 12.48 chap. 14.17 Wherefore the Object of Faith in our Justification that whereby we are justified is tendered granted and given unto us of God the use of Faith being to lay hold upon it to receive it so as that it may be our own What we receive of outward things that are so given unto us we do it by our hand which therefore is the instrument of that reception that whereby we apprehend or lay hold of any thing to appropriate it unto our selves and that because this is the peculiar Office which by nature it is assigned unto among all the members of the body Other Vses it hath and other members on other Accounts may be as useful unto the body as it but it alone is the instrument of receiving and apprehending that which being given is to be made our own and to abide with us Whereas therefore the Righteousness wherewith we are justified is the Gift of God which is tendred unto us in the Promise of the Gospel the Use and Office of Faith being to receive apprehend or lay hold of and appropriate this Righteousness I know not how it can be better expressed than by an Instrument nor by what notion of it more light of understanding may be conveyed unto our minds Some may suppose other Notions are meet to express it by on other Accounts and it may be so with respect unto other uses of it But the sole present Enquiry is how it shall be declared as that which receiveth Christ the Atonement the Gift of Righteousness which will prove its only use in our Justification He that can better express this than by an Instrument ordained of God unto this End all whose use depends on that Ordination of God will deserve well of the Truth It is true that all those who place the formal Cause or Reason of our Justification in our selves or our inherent Righteousness and so either directly or by just consequence deny all Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ unto our Justification are not capable of admitting Faith to be an Instrument in this work nor are pressed with this consideration For they acknowledge not that we receive a Righteousness which is not our own by way of Gift whereby we are justified and so cannot allow of any Instrument whereby it should be received The Righteousness it self being as they phrase it putative imaginary a chimaera a fiction it can have no real accidents nothing that can be really predicated concerning it Wherefore as was said at the Entrance of this Discourse the Truth and Propriety of this declaration of the Vse of Faith in our Justification by an Instrumental cause depends on the substance of the Doctrine it self concerning the nature and principal causes of it with which they must stand or fall If we are justified through the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ which Faith alone apprehends and receives it will not be denied but that it is rightly enough placed as the Instrumental cause of our Justification And if we are justified by an inherent Evangelical Righteousness of our own Faith may be the Condition of its Imputation or a disposition for its Introduction or a congruous merit of it but an Instrument it cannot be But yet for the present it hath this double advantage 1 That it best and most appositely answers what is affirmed of the Vse of Faith in our Justification in the Scripture as the Instances given do manifest 2. That no other notion of it can be so stated but that it must be apprehended in order of time to be previous unto Justification which Justifying Faith cannot be unless a man may be a true Believer with Justifying Faith and yet not be justified Some do plead that Faith is the Condition of our Justification and that otherwise it is not to be conceived of As I said before so I say again I shall not contend with any man about Words Terms or Expressions so long as what is intended by them is agreed upon And there is an obvious sense wherein Faith may be called the Condition of our Justification For no more may be
Righteousness of Christ. And this Justification if any will needs call it so is capable of degrees both of encrease in its self and of exercise in its fruits as was newly declared But not only to call this our Justification with a general respect unto the notion of the word as a making of us personally and inherently Righteous but to plead that this is the Justification through Faith in the Blood of Christ declared in the Scripture is to exclude the only true Evangelical Justification from any place in Religion The second Branch of the distinction hath much in it like unto Justification by the Law but nothing of that which is declared in the Gospel So that this Distinction instead of coyning us two Justification according to the Gospel hath left us none at all For 4. There is no countenance given unto this Distinction in the Scripture There is indeed mention therein as we observed before of a double Justification the one by the Law the other according unto the Gospel But that either of these should on any account be sub-distinguished into a first and second of the same kind that is either according unto the Law or the Gospel there is nothing in the Scripture to intimate For this second Justification is no way applicable unto what the Apostle James discourseth on that Subject He treats of Justification but speaks not one word of an encrease of it or addition unto it of a first or second Besides he speaks expresly of him that boasts of Faith which being without works is a dead Faith But he who hath the first Justification by the confession of our Adversaries hath a true living Faith formed and enlivened by Charity And he useth the same Testimony concerning the Justification of Abraham that Paul doth and therefore doth not intend another but the same though in a divers respect Nor doth any Believer learn the least of it in his own experience nor without a design to serve a farther turn would it ever have entered the minds of sober men on the reading of the Scripture And it is the bane of spiritual Truth for men in the pretended Declaration of it to coyn arbitrary distinctions without Scripture ground for them and obtrude them as belonging unto the Doctrine they treat of They serve unto no other end or purpose but only to lead the minds of men from the substance of what they ought to attend unto and to engage all sorts of Persons in endless strifes and contentions If the Authors of this Distinction would but go over the places in the Scripture where mention is made of our Justification before God and make a distribution of them unto the respective parts of their Distinction they would quickly find themselves at an unrelievable loss 5. There is that in the Scripture ascribed unto our first Justification if they will needs call it so as leaves no room for their second feigned Justification For the sole foundation and pretence of this Distinction is a denial of those things to belong unto our Justification by the Blood of Christ which the Scripture expresly assigns unto it Let us take out some instances of what belongs unto the first and we shall quickly see how little it is yea that there is nothing left for the pretended second Justification For 1 Therein do we receive the compleat pardon and forgiveness of our Sins Rom. 4.4 6 7. Ephes. 1.7 Chap. 4.32 Act. 26.18 2 Thereby are we made Righteous Rom. 5.19 Chap. 10.4 And 3 are freed from Condemnation Judgment and Death Joh. 3.16 19. Chap. 5.25 Rom. 8.1 4 Are Reconciled unto God Rom. 5.9 10. 2 Cor. 5.21 22. And 5 have peace with him and access into the favour wherein we stand by Grace with the advantages and consolations that depend thereon in a sense of his Love Rom. 5.1 2 3 4 5. And 6 we have Adoption therewithal and all its priviledges John 1.12 And in particular 7 a Right and Title unto the whole inheritance of Glory Act. 26.18 Rom. 8.17 And 8 hereon eternal life doth follow Rom. 8.30 Chap. 6.23 Which things will be again immediately spoken unto upon another occasion And if there be any thing now left for their second Justification to do as such let them take it as their own these things are all of them ours or do belong unto that one Justification which we do assert Wherefore it is evident that either the First Justification overthrows the Second rendring it needless or the Second destroys the First by taking away what essentially belongs unto it we must therefore part with the one or the other for consistent they are not But that which gives countenance unto the Fiction and Artifice of this Distinction and a great many more is a dislike of the Doctrine of the Grace of God and Justification from thence by Faith in the Blood of Christ which some endeavour hereby to send out of the way upon a pretended sleeveless Errand whilst they dress up their own Righteousness in its Robes and exalt it into the Room and Dignity thereof But there seems to be more of reality and difficulty in what is pleaded concerning the continuation of our Justification For those that are freely justified are continued in that state until they are glorified By Justification they are really changed into a new spiritual state and condition and have a new Relation given them unto God and Christ unto the Law and the Gospel And it is enquired what it is whereon their Continuation in this state doth on their part depend or what is required of them that they may be justified unto the End And this as some say is not Faith alone but also the works of sincere Obedience And none can deny but that they are required of all them that are justified whilst they continue in a state of Justification on this side Glory which next and immediately ensues thereunto But whether upon our Justification at first before God Faith be immediately dismissed from its place and office and its work be given over unto works so as that the continuation of our Justification should depend on our own personal Obedience and not on the renewed Application of Faith unto Christ and his Righteousness is worth our enquiry Only I desire the Reader to observe that which was the necessity of owning a personal Obedience in justified persons is on all hands absolutely agreed the seeming difference that is herein concerns not the substance of the Doctrine of Justification but the manner of expressing our conceptions concerning the order of the Disposition of Gods Grace and our own Duty unto Edification wherein I shall use my own liberty as it is meet others should do theirs And I shall offer my thoughts hereunto in the ensuing observations 1. Justification is such a work as is at once compleated in all the causes and the whole effect of it though not as unto the full possession of all that it gives Right and Title unto For
unto the ultimate manifestation of Divine Glory in the Creation and Guidance of all things are sufficiently manifest And whence it appears how little force there is in that Argument which some pretend to be of so great weight in this cause As every one they say shall be judged of God at the last day in the same way and manner or on the same Ground is he justified of God in this life But by Works and not by Faith alone every one shall be judged at the last day Wherefore by Works and not by Faith alone every one is justified before God in this life For 1. It is no where said that we shall be judged at the last day ex operibus but only that God will render unto men secundum opera But God doth not justifie any in this life secundum opera Being justified freely by his Grace And not according to the Works of Righteousness which we have done And we are every where said to be justified in this life ex fide per fidem but no where propter fidem or that God justifieth us secundum fidem by Faith but not for our Faith nor according unto our Faith And we are not to depart from the expressions of the Scripture where such a difference is constantly observed 2. It is somewhat strange that a man should be judged at the last day and justified in this life just in the same way and manner that is with respect unto Faith and Works when the Scripture doth constantly ascribe our Justification before God unto Faith without Works and the Judgment at the last day is said to be according unto Works without any mention of Faith 3. If Justification and eternal Judgment proceed absolute-on the same Grounds Reasons and Causes then if men had not done what they shall be condemned for doing at the last day they should have been justified in this life But many shall be condemned only for sins against the light of nature Rom. 2.12 as never having the written Law or Gospel made known unto them Wherefore unto such persons to abstain from sins against the light of nature would be sufficient unto their Justification without any knowledge of Christ or the Gospel 4. This Proposition that God pardons men their Sins gives them the Adoption of Children with a right unto the Heavenly Inheritance according to their Works is not only foraign to the Gospel but contradictory unto it and destructive of it as contrary unto all express Testimonies of the Scripture both in the old Testament and the new where these things are spoken of But that God judgeth all men and rendreth unto all men at the last Judgment according unto their Works is true and affirmed in the Scripture 5. In our Justification in this life by Faith Christ is considered as our Propitiation and Advocate as he who hath made Atonement for sin and brought in everlasting Righteousness But at the last day and in the last Judgment he is considered only as the Judge 6. The end of God in our Justification is the Glory of his Grace Eph. 1.6 But the end of God in the last Judgment is the Glory of his remunerative Righteousness 2 Tim. 4.8 7. The Representation that is made of the final Judgment Math. 7. and Chap. 25. is only of the visible Church And therein the plea of Faith as to the profession of it is common unto all and is equally made by all Upon that plea of Faith it is put unto the trial whether it were sincere true Faith or no or only that which was dead and barren And this trial is made solely by the fruits and effects of it and otherwise in the publick declaration of things unto all it cannot be made Otherwise the Faith whereby we are justified comes not into Judgment at the last day See Joh. 5.24 with Mark 16.16 CHAP. VII Imputation and the Nature of it with the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ in particular THe first express Record of the Justification of any sinner is of Abraham Others were justified before him from the Beginning and there is that affirmed of them which sufficiently evidenceth them so to have been But this Prerogative was reserved for the Father of the Faithful that his Justification and the express way and manner of it should be first entered on the Sacred Record So it is Gen. 15.6 He believed in the Lord and it was counted unto him for Righteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was accounted unto him or imputed unto him for Righteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was counted reckoned imputed And it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed unto him but for us also unto whom it shall be imputed if we believe Rom. 4.23 24. Wherefore the first express Declaration of the nature of Justification in the Scripture affirms it to be by Imputation The Imputation of somewhat unto Righteousness And this done in that place and instance which is Recorded on purpose as the president and example of all those that shall be justified As he was justified so are we and no otherwise Under the new Testament there was a necessity of a more full and clear Declaration of the Doctrine of it For it is among the first and most principal parts of that Heavenly mystery of Truth which was to be brought to light by the Gospel And besides there was from the first a strong and Dangerous Opposition made unto it For this matter of Justification the Doctrine of it and what necessarily belongs thereunto was that whereon the Jewish Church broke off from God refused Christ and the Gospel perishing in their sins as is expresly declared Rom. 9.31 10.3 4. And in like manner a dislike of it an Opposition unto it ever was and ever will be a principle and cause of the Apostasie of any professing Church from Christ and the Gospel that falls under the power and deceit of them as it fell out afterwards in the Churches of the Galatians But in this state the Doctrine of Justification was fully declared stated and vindicated by the Apostle Paul in a peculiar manner And he doth it especially by affirming and proving that we have the Righteousness whereby and wherewith we are justified by Imputation or that our Justification consists in the non-Imputation of sin and the Imputation of Righteousness But yet although the first Recorded instance of Justification and which was so recorded that it might be an example and represent the Justification of all that should be justified unto the end of the World is expressed by Imputation and Righteousness imputed and the Doctrine of it in that great case wherein the eternal welfare of the Church of the Jews or their ruine was concerned is so expressed by the Apostle yet is it so fallen out in our days that nothing in Religion is more maligned more reproached more despised then the Imputation of Righteousness unto us or an Imputed Righteousness A putative Righteousness the
in the behalf of another whose Ability or Reputation is dubious are ad me recipio facâ—et aut faciam And when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken adjectively as sometimes it signifies satisdationibus obnoxius liable to payments for others that are non-solvent 2. God can therefore have no surety properly because there can be no Imagination of any defect on his part There may be indeed a Question whether any Word or Promise be a Word or Promise of God To assure us hereof it is not the Work of a surety but only any one or any means that may give evidence that so it is that is of a Witness But upon a supposition that what is proposed in his Word or Promise there can be no Imagination or fear of any defect on his part so as that there should be any need of a surety for the performance of it He doth therefore make use of Witnesses to confirm his Word that is to testifie that such Promises he hath made and so he will do So the Lord Christ was his Witness Isa. 43.10 Ye are my Witnesses saith the Lord and my Servant whom I have chosen But they were not all his sureties So he affirms that he came into the World to bear witness unto the Truth Joh. 18.37 that is the Truth of the Promises of God for he was the Minister of the Circumcision for the Truth of the Promises of God unto the Fathers Rom. 15.8 But a surety for God properly so called he was not nor could be The distance and difference is wide enough between a witness and a surety For a surety must be of more Ability or more Credit and Reputation than he or those for whom he is a surety or there is no need of his suretiship or at least he must add unto their credit and make it better than without him This none can be for God no not the Lord Christ himself who in his whole work was the Servant of the Father And the Apostle doth not use this word in general improper sense for any one that by any means gives Assurance of any other thing for so he had ascribed nothing peculiar unto Christ. For in such a sense all the Prophets and Apostles were sureties for God and many of them confirmed the Truth of his Word and Promises with the laying down of their lives But such a surety he intends as undertaketh to do that for others which they cannot do for themselves or at least are not reputed to be able to do what is required of them 3. The Apostle had before at large declared who and what was Gods surety in this mattter of the Covenant and how impossible it was that he should have any other And this was himself alone interposing himself by his Oath For in this cause because he had none greater to swear by he sware by himself chap. 6.13 14. Wherefore if God would give any other surety besides himself it must be one greater than He. This being every way impossible he swears by himself only Many ways he may and doth use for the declaring and testifying of his Truth unto us that we may know and believe it to be his Word and so the Lord Christ in his Ministry was the principal witness of the Truth of God But other surety than himself he can have none And therefore 4. When he would have us in this matter not only come unto the full Assurance of Faith concerning his Promises but also to have strong consolation therein he resolves it wholly into the Immutability of his counsel as declared by his Promise and Oath chap. 6.18 19. So that neither is God capable of having any surety properly so called neither do we stand in need of any on his part for the confirmation of our Faith in the highest degree 5. We on all accounts stand in need of a surety for us or on our behalf Neither without the Interposition of such a surety could any Covenant between God and us be firm and stable or an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure In the first Covenant made with Adam there was no surety but God and men were the immediate Covenanters And although we were then in a state and condition able to perform and answer all the Terms of the Covenant yet was it broken and disannulled If this came to pass by the failure of the Promise of God it was necessary that on the making of a new Covenant he should have a surety to undertake for him that the Covenant might be stable and everlasting But this is false and blasphemous to imagine It was man alone who failed and broke that Covenant Wherefore it was necessary that upon the making of the New Covenant and that with a design and purpose that it should never be disannulled as the former was that we should have a surety and undertaker for us For if that first Covenant was not firm and stable because there was no surety to undertake for us notwithstanding all that Ability which we had to answer the terms of it how much less can any other be so now our Natures are become depraved and sinful Wherefore we alone were capable of a surety properly so called for us we alone stood in need of him and without him the Covenant could not be firm and inviolate on our parts The surety therefore of this Covenant is so with God for us 6. It is the Priesthood of Christ that the Apostle treats of in this place and that alone Wherefore he is a surety as he is a Priest and in the discharge of that Office and therefore is so with God on our behalf This Schlictingius observes and is aware what will ensue against his pretensions which he endeavours to obviate Mirum saith he porro alicui videri posset cur Divinus Author de Christi sacerdotio in superioribus in sequentibus agens derepente eum sponsorem foederis non vero sacerdotem vocet Cur non dixerit tanto praestantioris foederis factus est sacerdos Jesus hoc enim plane requirere videtur totus orationis contextus Credibile est in voce sponsionis sacerdotium quoque Christi intelligi Sponsoris enim non est alieno nomine quippiam promittere fidem suam pro alio interponere sed etiam si ita res ferat alterius nomine id quod spopondit praestare In rebus quidem humanis si id non praestet is pro quo sponsor fidejussit hic vero propter contrariam causam nam prior hic locum habere non potest nempe quatenus ille pro quo spopondit Christus per ipsum Christum promissa sua nobis exhibet qua in re praecipue Christi sacerdotium continetur Ans. 1 It may indeed seem strange unto any one who imagineth Christ to be such a surety as he doth why the Apostle should so call him and so introduce him in the Description of his Priestly Office as that which belongeth thereunto But
alone others Faith and Works also and that in the same kind of necessity and use That whose consideration we at present undertake is the second thing proposed And indeed herein lies the substance of the whole controversie about our Justification before God upon the determination and stating whereof the determination of all other incident Questions doth depend This therefore is that which herein I affirm The Righteousness of Christ in his Obedience and Suffering for us imputed unto Believers as they are united unto him by his spirit is that Righteousness whereon they are justified before God on the Account whereof their sins are pardoned and a Right is granted them into the Heavenly Inheritance This Position is such as wherein the substance of that Doctrine in this important Article of Evangelical Truth which we plead for is plainly and fully expressed And I have chosen the rather thus to express it because it is that Thesis wherein the Learned Davenant laid down that common Doctrine of the Reformed Churches whose defence he undertook This is the shield of Truth in the whole cause of Justification which whilst it is preserved safe we need not trouble our selves about the Differences that are among Learned men about the most proper stating and declaration of some lesser concernments of it This is the Refuge the only Refuge of distressed Consciences wherein they may find Rest and Peace For the confirmation of this Assertion I shall do these three things 1 Reflect on what is needful unto the Explanation of it 2 Answer the most important general Objections against it 3 Prove the Truth of it by Arguments and Testimonies of the holy Scripture As to the first of these or what is necessary unto the Explanation of this Assertion it hath been sufficiently spoken unto in our foregoing Discourses The Heads of some things only shall at present be called over 1. The Foundation of the Imputation asserted is Union Hereof there are many Grounds and Causes as hath been declared But that which we have immediate respect unto as the Foundation of this Imputation is that whereby the Lord Christ and Believers do actually coalesce into one mystical Person This is by the Holy Spirit inhabiting in him as the Head of the Church in all fulness and in all Believers according to their measure whereby they became members of his mystical Body That there is such an Union between Christ and Believers is the Faith of the Catholick Church and hath been so in all Ages Those who seem in our days to deny it or question it either know not what they say or their minds are influenced by their Doctrine who deny the Divine Persons of the Son and of the Spirit Upon supposition of this Vnion Reason will grant the Imputation pleaded for to be reasonable at least that there is such a peculiar Ground for it as is not to be exemplified in any things natural or political among men 2. The Nature of Imputation hath been fully spoken unto before and thereunto I refer the Reader for the understanding of what is intended thereby 3. That which is imputed is the Righteousness of Christ and briefly I understand hereby his whole Obedience unto God in all that he did and suffered for the Church This I say is imputed unto Believers so as to become their only Righteousness before God unto the Justification of Life If beyond these things any Expressions have been made use of in the Explanation of this Truth which have given occasion unto any Differences or Contests although they may be true and defensible against Objections yet shall not I concern my self in them The substance of the Truth as laid down is that whose Defence I have undertaken and where that is granted or consented unto I will not contend with any about their way and methods of its Declaration nor defend the Terms and Expressions that have by any been made use of therein For instance Some have said that what Christ did and suffered is so imputed unto us as that we are judged and esteemed in the sight of God to have done or suffered our selves in him This I shall not concern my self in For although it may have a sound sense given unto it and is used by some of the Antients yet because offence is taken at it and the substance of the Truth we plead for is better otherwise expressed it ought not to be contended about For we do not say that God judgeth or esteemeth that we did and suffered in our own persons what Christ did and suffered but only that he did it and suffered it in our stead Hereon God makes a Grant and Donation of it unto Believers upon their Believing unto their Justification before him And the like may be said of many other Expressions of the like nature These things being premised I proceed unto the consideration of the general objections that are urged against the Imputation we plead for And I shall insist only on some of the principal of them and whereinto all others may be resolved for it were endless to go over all that any mans Invention can suggest unto him of this kind And some general considerations we must take along with us herein As 1. The Doctrine of Justification is a part yea an eminent part of the mystery of the Gospel It is no marvel therefore if it be not so exposed unto the common notions of Reason as some would have it to be There is more required unto the true spiritual understanding of such mysteries yea unless we intend to renounce the Gospel it must be asserted that Reason as it is corrupted and the mind of man destitute of Divine supernatural Revelation do dislike every such Truth and rise up in Enmity against it So the Scripture directly affirms Rom. 8.7 1 Cor. 2.14 2. Hence are the Minds and Inventions of men wonderful fertile in coyning Objections against Evangelical Truths and raising cavils against them Seldom to this purpose do they want an endless number of sophistical Objections which because they know no better they themselves judge insoluble For carnal Reason being once set at liberty under the false notion of Truth to act it self freely and boldly against spiritual mysteries is subtile in its arguings and pregnant in its Invention of them How endless for instance are the Sophisms of the Socinians against the Doctrine of the Trinity and how do they triumph in them as unanswerable Under the shelter of them they despise the force of the most evident Testimonies of the Scripture and those multiplied on all occasions In like manner they deal with the Doctrine of the satisfaction of Christ as the Pelagians of old did with that of his Grace Wherefore he that will be startled at the Appearance of subtile or plausible Objections against any Gospel mysteries that are plainly revealed and sufficiently attested in the Scripture is not likely to come unto much stability in his Profession of them 3. The most of the
or before thee shall no man living be justified This must be spoken absolutely or with respect unto some one way or cause of Justification If it be spoken absolutely then this work ceaseth for ever and there is indeed no such thing as Justification before God But this is contrary unto the whole Scripture and destructive of the Gospel Wherefore it is spoken with respect unto our own Obedience and works He doth not pray absolutely that he would not enter into Judgment with him for this were to forego his Government of the world but that he would not do so on the account of his own Dutys and Obedience But if so be these Dutys and Obedience did answer in any sense or way what is required of us as a Righteousness unto Justification there was no Reason why he should deprecate a Trial by them or upon them But whereas the Holy Ghost doth so positively affirm that no man living shall be justified in the sight of God by or upon his own Works or Obedience it is I confess marvellous unto me that some should so intepret the Apostle James as if he affirmed the express contrary Namely that we are justified in the sight of God by our own Works whereas indeed he says no such thing This therefore is an Eternal Rule of Truth by or upon his Obedience no man living can be justified in the sight of God It will be said that if God enter into Judgment with any on their own Obedience by and according to the Law then indeed none can be justified before him But God judging according to the Gospel and the terms of the new Covenant men may be justified upon their own Duties Works and Obedience Ans. 1 The negative Assertion is general and unlimited that no man living shall on his own Works or Obedience be justified in the sight of God And to limit it unto this or that way of Judging is not to distinguish but to contradict the Holy Ghost 2 The Judgment intended is only with respect unto Justification as is plain in the words But there is no Judgment on our Works or Obedience with respect unto Righteousness and Justification but by the proper Rule and Measure of them which is the Law If they will not endure the Trial by the Law they will endure no Trial as unto Righteousness and Justification in the sight of God 3 The Prayer and Plea of the Psalmist on this supposition are to this purpose O Lord enter not into Judgment with thy servant by or according unto the Law but enter into Judgment with me on my own Works and Obedience according to the Rule of the Gospel for which he gives this Reason because in thy sight shall no man living be justified which how remote it is from his Intention need not be declared 4 The Judgment of God unto Justification according to the Gospel doth not proceed on our Works of Obedience but upon the Righteousness of Christ and our interest therein by Faith as is too evident to be modestly denied Notwithstanding this exception therefore hence we argue If the most Holy of the servants of God in and after a course of sincere fruitful Obedience testified unto by God himself and Witnessed in their own Consciences that is whilst they have the greatest evidences of their own sincerity and that indeed they are the servants of God do renounce all thoughts of such a Righteousness thereby as whereon in any sense they may be justified before God then there is no such Righteousness in any but it is the Righteousness of Christ alone imputed unto us whereon we are so justified But that so they do and ought all of them so to do because of the general Rule here laid down that in the sight of God no man living shall be justified is plainly affirmed in this Testimony I no way doubt but that many learned men after all their Pleas for an Interest of Personal Righteousness and Works in our Justification before God do as unto their own practice betake themselves unto this method of the Psalmist and cry as the Prophet Daniel doth in the name of the Church we do not present our supplications before thee for our own Righteousness but for thy great mercies Chap. 9.18 And therefore Job as we have formerly observed after a long and earnest defence of his own Faith Integrity and Personal Righteousness wherein he justified himself against the charge of Sathan and men being called to plead his cause in the sight of God and declare on what grounds he expected to be justified before him renounceth all his former Pleas and betakes himself unto the same with the Psalmist Chap. 40.4 Chap. 42.6 It is true in particular cases and as unto some especial end in the Providence of God a man may plead his own Integrity and Obedience before God himself So did Hezekiah when he prayed for the sparing of his life Isa. 38.3 Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in Truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight This I say may be done with respect unto temporal Deliverance or any other particular end wherein the glory of God is concerned So was it greatly in sparing the life of Hezekiah at that time For whereas he had with great Zeal and Industry reformed Religion and restored the true worship of God the cutting him off in the midst of his days would have occasioned the Idolatrous multitude to have reflected on him as one dying under a token of Divine displeasure But none ever made this Plea before God for the absolute Justification of their persons So Nehemiah in that great contest which he had about the worship of God and the service of his house pleads the Remembrance of it before God in his Justification against his Adversaries but resolves his own personal acceptance with God into pardoning mercy and spare me according unto the multitude of thy mercies Chap. 13.22 Another Testimony we have unto the same purpose in the Prophet Isaiah speaking in the name of the Church Cap. 64.6 We are all as an unclean thing and all our Righteousnesses are as filthy Rags It is true the Prophet doth in this place make a deep confession of the sins of the people But yet withal he joyns himself with them and asserts the especial Interest of those concerning whom he speaks by Adoption that God was their Father and they his people Chap. 63.16 Chap. 64.8 9. And the Righteousness of all that are the Children of God are of the same kind however they may differ in Degrees and some of them may be more Righteous than others But it is all of it described to be such as that we cannot I think justly expect Justification in the sight of God upon the account of it But whereas the consideration of the nature of our inherent Righteousness belongs unto the second way of the confirmation of our present Argument I
given by Moses we have already shewed the Vanity of that pretence But if they mean thereby the whole Law or Rule of Obedience given unto the Church of Israel under the Old Testament they express much of the Truth it may be more than they designed 5. Some say that it is Works with a Conceit of Merit that makes the Reward to be of Debt and not of Grace that are excluded by the Apostle But no such distinction appeareth in the Text or Context For 1. The Apostle excludeth all Works of the Law that is that the Law requireth of us in a way of Obedience be they of what sort they will 2. The Law requireth no Works with a Conceit of Merit 3. Works of the Law Originally included no Merit as that which ariseth from the Proportion of one thing unto another in the Ballance of Justice and in that sense only is it rejected by those who plead for an Interest of Works in Justification 4. The Merit which the Apostle excludes is that which is inseparable from Works so that it cannot be excluded unless the Works themselves be so And unto their Merit two things concur 1. A Comparative boasting that is not absolutely in the sight of God which follows the Meritum ex condigno which some poor sinful Mortals have fancied in their Works but that which gives one man a preference above another in the obtaining of Justification which Grace will not allow Chap. 4.2 2. That the Reward be not absolutely of Grace but that respect be had therein unto Works which makes it so far to be of debt not out of an internal Condignity which would not have been under the Law of Creation but out of some Congruity with respect unto the promise of God v. 4. In these two regards Merit is inseparable from Works and the Holy Ghost utterly to exclude it excludeth all Works from which it is inseparable as it is from all Wherefore 5. The Apostle speaks not one word about the exclusion of the Merit of Works only but he excludeth all Works whatever and that by this Argument that the Admission of them would necessarily introduce merit in the sense described which is inconsistent with Grace And although some think that they are injuriously dealt withal when they are charged with maintaining of merit in their asserting the Influence of our Works into our Justification yet those of them who best understand themselves and the Controversie it self are not so averse from some kind of merit as knowing that it is inseparable from Works 6. Some contend that the Apostle excludes only Works wrought before believing in the strength of our own Wills and Natural Abilities without the aid of Grace Works they suppose required by the Law are such as we perform by the Direction and Command of the Law alone But the Law of Faith requireth Works in the strength of the supplies of Grace which are not excluded This is that which the most learned and judicious of the Church of Rome do now generally betake themselves unto Those who amongst us plead for Works in our Justification as they use many distinctions to explain their Minds and free their Opinion from a co-incidence with that of the Papists so as yet they deny the name of Merit and the thing it self in the sense of the Church of Rome as it is renounced likewise by all the Socinians Wherefore they make use of the preceding Evasion that Merit is excluded by the Apostle and Works only as they are meritorious although the Apostles plain Argument be that they are excluded because such a Merit as is inconsistent with Grace is inseparable from their Admission But the Roman Church cannot so part with Merit Wherefore they are to find out a sort of Works to be excluded only which they are content to part withal as not meritorious Such are those before described wrought as they say before believing and without the aids of Grace and such they say are all the Works of the Law And this they do with some more Modesty and Sobriety than those amongst us who would have only external Works and Observances to be intended For they grant that sundry internal Works as those of Attrition sorrow for Sin and the like are of this Nature But the Works of the Law it is they say that are excluded But this whole Plea and all the Sophisms wherewith it is countenanced hath been so discussed and defeated by Protestant Writers of all sorts against Bellarmine and others as that it is needless to repeat the same things or to add any thing unto them And it will be sufficiently evinced of falshood in what we shall immediately prove concerning the Law and Works intended by the Apostle However the Heads of the Demonstration of the Truth to the contrary may be touched on And 1. The Apostle excludeth all Works without distinction or exception And we are not to distinguish where the Law doth not distinguish before us 2. All the Works of the Law are excluded therefore all Works wrought after believing by the aids of Grace are excluded For they are all required by the Law See Psal. 119.35 Rom. 7.22 Works not required by the Law are no less an Abomination to God than Sins against the Law 3. The Works of Believers after Conversion performed by the Aids of Grace are expresly excluded by the Apostle So are those of Abraham after he had been a Believer many years and abounded in them unto the Praise of God So he excludeth his own Works after his Conversion Gal. 2.16 1 Cor. 4.4 Phil. 3.9 And so he excludeth the Works of all other Believers Ephes. 2.9 10. 4. All Works are excluded that might give countenance unto boasting Rom. 4.2 Chap. 3.17 Eph. 2.9 1 Cor. 1.29 30 31. But this is done more by the Good Works of regenerate Persons than by any Works of Unbelievers 5. The Law required Faith and Love in all our Works and therefore if all the Works of the Law be excluded the best works of Believers are so 6. All Works are excluded which are opposed unto Grace working freely in our Justification But this all Works whatever are Rom. 11.6 7. In the Epistle unto the Galatians the Apostle doth exclude from our Justification all those Works which the false Teachers pressed as necessary thereunto But they urged the necessity of the Works of Believers and those which were by Grace already converted unto God For those upon whom they pressed them unto this End were already actually so 8. They are Good Works that the Apostle excludeth from our Justification For there can be no Pretence of Justification by those Works that are not Good or which have not all things essentially requisite to make them so But such are all the Works of Unbelievers performed without the Aids of Grace they are not Good nor as such accepted with God but want what is essentially requisite unto the Constitution of Good Works And it is ridiculous to think
Heb. 6.18 Who have fled for Refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us Prov. 18.10 Hence some have defined Faith to be perfugium animae the flight of the Soul unto Christ for Deliverance from Sin and Misery And much light is given unto the Understanding of the thing intended thereby For herein it is supposed that he who believeth is antecedently thereunto convinced of his lost condition and that if he abide therein he must perish eternally that he hath nothing of himself whereby he may be delivered from it that he must betake himself unto somewhat else for Relief that unto this end he considereth Christ as set before him and proposed unto him in the Promise of the Gospel that he judgeth this to be an holy a safe way for his Deliverance and Acceptance with God as that which hath the Characters of all Divine Excellencies upon it hereon he flyeth unto it for Refuge that is with diligence and speed that he perish not in his present Condition he betakes himself unto it by placing his whole Trust and Affiance thereon And the whole Nature of our Justification by Christ is better declared hereby unto the supernatural Sense and Experience of Believers than by an hundred Philosophical Disputations about it 5. The Terms and Notions by which it is expressed under the Old Testament are leaning on God Micah 3.11 or Christ Cant. 8.5 rolling or casting our selves and our burthen on the Lord Psal. 22.8 Psal. 37.5 The Wisdom of the Holy Ghost in which Expressions hath by some been prophanely derided Resting on God or in him 2 Chron. 14.11 Psal. 37.7 Cleaving unto the Lord Deut. 4.4 Acts 11.15 as also by Trusting Hoping and Waiting in Places innumerable And it may be observed that those who acted Faith as it is thus expressed do every where declare themselves to be lost hopeless helpless desolate poor Orphans whereon they place all their hope and expectation on God alone All that I would infer from these things is that the Faith whereby we believe unto the Justification of life or which is required of us in a way of Duty that we may be justified is such an Act of the whole Soul whereby convinced Sinners do wholly go out of themselves to rest upon God in Christ for Mercy Pardon Life Righteousness and Salvation with an acquiescency of Heart therein which is the whole of the Truth pleaded for CHAP. XVI The Truth pleaded farther confirmed by Testimonies of Scripture Jer. 23.6 THat which we now proceed unto is the consideration of those Express Testimonies of Scripture which are given unto the Truth pleaded for and especially of those places where the Doctrine of the Justification of Sinners is expresly and designedly handled From them it is that we must learn the Truth and into them must our Faith be resolved unto whose Authority all the arguings and Objections of men must give place By them is more light conveyed into the understandings of Believers than by the most subtle Disputations And it is a thing not without scandal to see among Protestants whole Books written about Justification wherein scarce one Testimony of Scripture is produced unless it be to find out Evasions from the force of them And in particular whereas the Apostle Paul hath most fully and expresly as he had the greatest occasion so to do declared and vindicated the Doctrine of Evangelical Justification not a few in what they write about it are so far from declaring their Thoughts and Faith concerning it out of his Writings as that they begin to reflect upon them as obscure and such as give occasion unto dangerous mistakes and unless as was said to answer and except against them upon their own corrupt Principles seldom or never make mention of them As though we were grown wiser than he or that Spirit whereby he was inspired guided acted in all that he wrote But there can be nothing more Alien from the genius of Christian Religion than for us not to endeavour humbly to learn the Mystery of the Grace of God herein in the Declaration of it made by him But the foundation of God standeth sure what course soever men shall be pleased to take into their Profession of Religion For the Testimonies which I shall produce and insist upon I desire the Reader to observe 1. That they are but some of the many that might be pleaded unto the same purpose 2. That those which have been or yet shall be alledged on particular occasions I shall wholly omit and such are most of them that are given unto this Truth in the Old Testament 3. That in the Exposition of them I shall with what diligence I can attend 1. Unto the Analogy of Faith that is the manifest scope and design of the Revelation of the Mind and will of God in the Scripture And that this is to exalt the Freedom and riches of his own Grace the Glory and Excellency of Christ and his Mediation to discover the woful lost forlorn condition of man by Sin to debase and depress every thing that is in and of our selves as to the attaining Life Righteousness and Salvation cannot be denied by any who have their senses exercised in the Scriptures 2. Unto the Experience of them that do believe with the condition of them who seek after Justification by Jesus Christ. In other things I hope the best helps and Rules of the interpretation of the Scripture shall not be neglected There is weight in this case deservedly laid on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God as promised and given unto us namely the Lord our Righteousness Jer. 23.6 As the name Jehovah being given and ascribed unto him is a full indication of his Divine person so the addition of his being our Righteousness sufficiently declares that in and by him alone we have Righteousness or are made righteous So was he typed by Melchisedec as first the King of Righteousness then the King of Peace Heb. 7.2 For by his Righteousness alone have we Peace with God Some of the Socinians would evade this Testimony by observing that Righteousness in the Old Testament is used sometimes for Benignity Kindness and Mercy and so they suppose it may be here But the most of them avoiding the palpable absurdity of this imagination refer it to the Righteousness of God in deliverance and vindication of his people So Brennius briefly Ita vocatur quia Dominus per manum ejus judicium justitiam faciet Israeli But these are evasions of bold men who care not so they may say somewhat whether what they say be agreeable to the Analogy of Faith or the plain words of the Scripture Bellarmine who was more wary to give some appearance of Truth unto his answers first gives other reasons why he is called the Lord our Righteousness and then whether unawares or over-powered by the evidence of Truth grants that sense of the words which contains the whole of the cause we plead
Hereby it was plainly and fully declared that there must be such a Righteousness provided for our Justification before Men as would answer and remove that curse 4. In the Prefiguration and Representation of that only way and means whereby this Righteousness of God was to be wrought This it did in all its Sacrifices especially in the great Anniversary Sacrifice on the Day of Expiation wherein all the sins of the Church were laid on the Head of the Sacrifice and so carried away 3. He describes it by the only way of our participation of it the only means on our part of the communication of it unto us And this is by Faith alone The Righteousness of God which is by the Faith of Christ Jesus unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference Ver. 22. Faith in Christ Jesus is so the only way and means whereby this Righteousness of God comes upon us or is communicated unto us that it is so unto all that have this Faith and only unto them and that without difference on the consideration of any thing else besides And although Faith taken absolutely may be used in various senses yet as thus specified and limited the Faith of Christ Jesus or as he calls it the Faith that is in me Acts 26.18 It can intend nothing but the reception of him and trust in him as the Ordinance of God for Righteousness and Salvation This description of The Righteousness of God revealed in the Gospel which the Apostle asserts as the only means and cause of our Justification before God with the only way of its participation and communication unto us by the Faith of Christ Jesus fully confirms the truth we plead for For if the Righteousness wherewith we must be justified before God be not our own but the Righteousness of God as these things are directly opposed Phil. 3.9 And the only way whereby it comes upon us or we are made partakers of it is by the Faith of Jesus Christ then our own personal inherent Righteousness or Obedience hath no interest in our Justification before God which Argument is insoluble nor is the force of it to be waved by any distinctions whatever if we keep our hearts unto a due reverence of the Authority of God in his Word Having fully proved That no Men living have any Righteousness of their own whereby they may be justified but are all shut up under the guilt of sin and having declared That there is a Righteousness of God now fully revealed in the Gospel whereby alone we may be so leaving all Men in themselves unto their own lot In as much as all have sinned and come short of the glory of God he proceeds to declare the nature of our Justification before God in all the causes of it Ver. 24 25 26. Being justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through Faith in his Blood to declare his Righteousness for the Remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God To declare I say at this time his Righteousness that he might be just and the Justifier of them that believe in Jesus Here it is that we may and ought if any where to expect the interest of our personal obedience under some qualification or other in our Justification to be declared For if it should be supposed which yet it cannot with any pretence of Reason that in the foregoing discourse the Apostle had excluded only the Works of the Law as absolutely perfect or as wrought in our own strength without the aid of Grace or as meritorious yet having generally excluded all Works from our Justification Ver. 20. Without distinction or limitation it might well be expected and ought to have been so that upon the full Declaration which he gives us of the nature and way of our Justification in all the causes of it he should have assigned the place and consideration which our own personal Righteousness had in our Justification before God the first or second or continuation of it somewhat or other or at least made some mention of it under the qualification of gracious sincere or Evangelical that it might not seem to be absolutely excluded It is plain the Apostle thought of no such thing nor was at all solicitous about any reflection that might be made on his Doctrine as though it overthrew the necessity of our own obedience Take in the consideration of the Apostles design with the circumstances of the context and the Argument from his utter silence about our own personal Righteousness in our Justification before God is unanswerable But this is not all we shall find in our progress that it is expresly and directly excluded by him All unprejudiced persons must needs think that no words could be used more express and emphatical to secure the whole of our Justification unto the Freegrace of God through the Blood or Mediation of Christ wherein it is Faith alone that gives us an interest than these used here by the Apostle And for my part I shall only say that I know not how to express my self in this matter in words and terms more express or significant of the conception of my mind And if we could all but subscribe the answer here given by the Apostle how by what means on what grounds or by what causes are we justified before God namely that we are justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through Faith in his Blood c. There might be an end of this Controversie But the principal passages of this Testimony must be distinctly considered 1. The principal efficient cause is first expressed with a peculiar emphasis or the causa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being justified freely by his Grace God is the principal efficient cause of our Justification and his Grace is the only moving cause thereof I shall not stay upon the exception of those of the Roman Church namely that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which their Translation renders per gratiam Dei the internal inherent Grace of God which they make the formal cause of Justification is intended For they have nothing to prove it but that which overthrows it namely that it is added unto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 freely which were needless if it signifie the Free-grace or Favor of God For both these expressions gratis per gratiam freely by Grace are put together to give the greater emphasis unto this assertion wherein the whole of our Justification is vendicated unto the Free-grace of God So far as they are distinguishable the one denotes the principle from whence our Justification proceeds namely Grace and the other the manner of its operation it works freely Besides the Grace of God in this subject doth every where constantly signifie his goodness love and favor as hath been undeniably proved by many See Rom.
much more as it includeth Obedience in it is a Work and in the later sense it is all Works And in the ensuing Context he proves that Abraham was not justified by Works But not to be justified by Works and to be justified by some Works as Faith it self is a Work and if as such it be imputed unto us for Righteousness we are justified by it as such are contradictory Wherefore I shall oppose some few Arguments unto this feigned sense of the Apostles words 1. To believe absolutely as Faith is an Act and Duty of of ours and Works are not opposed for Faith is a Work an especial kind of Working But Faith as we are justified by it and Works or to Work are opposed To him that worketh not but believeth So Gal. 2.16 Eph. 2.8 2. It is the Righteousness of God that is imputed unto us For we are made the Righteousness of God in Christ 2 Cor. 5.21 The Righteousness of God upon them that believe Rom. 3.21 22. But Faith absolutely considered is not the Righteousness of God God imputeth unto us Righteousness without Works Rom. 4.16 But there is no intimation of a double Imputation of two sorts of Righteousnesses of the Righteousness of God and that which is not so Now Faith absolutely considered is not The Righteousness of God For 1. That whereunto the Righteousness of God is revealed whereby we believe and receive it is not its self the Righteousness of God For nothing can be the cause or means of of it self But the Righteousness of God is revealed unto Faith Rom. 1.16 And by it is it received Rom. 3.22 Chap. 5.11 2. Faith is not the Righteousness of God which is by Faith But the Righteousness of God which is imputed unto us is the Righteousness of God which is by Faith Rom. 3.22 Phil. 3.9 3. That whereby the Righteousness of God is to be sought obtained and submitted unto is not that Righteousness it self But such is Faith Rom. 9.30 31. Chap. 10.30 4. The Righteousness which is imputed unto us is not our own antecedently unto that Imputation That I may be found in him not having my own Righteousness Phil. 3.9 But Faith is a mans own Shew me thy Faith I will shew thee my Faith Jam. 2.18 5. God imputeth Righteousness unto us Rom. 4.6 And that Righteousness which God imputeth unto us is the Righteousness whereby we are justified for it is imputed unto us that we may be justified But we are justified by the Obedience and Blood of Christ. By the Obedience of one we are made Righteous Rom. 5.19 Much more now being justified by his Blood v. 9. He hath put away Sin by the Sacrifice of himself Heb. 9.26 Isai. 53.11 By his knowledg shall my righteous Servant justifie many for he shall bear their Iniquities But Faith is neither the Obedience nor the Blood of Christ. 6. Faith as we said before is our own And that which is our own may be imputed unto us But the discourse of the Apostle is about that which is not our own antecedently unto Imputation but is made ours thereby as we have proved for it is of Grace And the Imputation of what is really our own unto us antecedently unto that Imputation is not of Grace in the sense of the Apostle For what is so imputed is imputed for what it is and nothing else For that Imputation is but the Judgment of God concerning the thing imputed with respect unto them whose it is So the Fact of Phineas was imputed unto him for Righteousness God judged it and declared it to be a Righteous rewardable act Wherefore if our Faith and Obedience be imputed unto us that Imputation is only the Judgment of God that we are Believers and Obedient The Righteousness of the Righteous saith the Prophet shall be upon him and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him Ezek. 18.20 As the wickedness of the wicked is upon him or is imputed unto him so the Righteousness of the Righteous is upon him or is imputed unto him And the wickedness of the wicked is on him when God judgeth him wicked as his Works are So is the Righteousness of a man upon him or imputed unto him when God judgeth of his Righteousness as it is Wherefore if Faith absolutely considered be imputed unto us as it contains in it self or as it is accompanied with Works of Obedience then it is imputed unto us either for a perfect Righteousness which it is not or for an imperfect Righteousness which it is or the Imputation of it is the accounting of that to be a perfect Righteousness which is but imperfect but none of these can be affirmed 1. It is not imputed unto us for a perfect Righteousness the Righteousness required by the Law for so it is not Episcopius confesseth in his disputation Disput. 43. § 7 8. that the Righteousness which is imputed unto us must be absolutissima perfectissima most absolute and most perfect And thence he thus defineth the Imputation of Righteousness unto us name y that it is gratiosa Divinae mentis aestimatio qua credentem in filium suum eo loco reputat ac si perfecte justus esset ac legi voluntati ejus per omnia semper paruisset And no man will pretend that Faith is such a most absolute and most perfect righteousness as that by it the Righteousness of the Law should be fulfilled in us as it is by that Righteousness which is imputed unto us 2. It is not imputed unto us for what it is an imperfect Righteousness For 1. This would be of no advantage unto us For we cannot be justified before God by an imperfect Righteousness as is evident in the Prayer of the Psalmist Psal. 143.2 Enter not into judgment with thy servant for in thy sight no man living no Servant of thine who hath the most perfect or highest measure of imperfect Righteousness shall be justified 2. The Imputation of any thing unto us that was ours antecedently unto that Imputation for what it is and no more is contrary unto the Imputation described by the Apostle as hath been proved 3. This Imputation pleaded for cannot be a judging of that to be a perfect Righteousness which is imperfect For the Judgment of God is according to Truth But without judging it to be such it cannot be accepted as such To accept of any thing but only for what we judg it to be is to be deceived Lastly if Faith as a Work be imputed unto us then it must be as a Work wrought in Faith For no other Work is accepted with God Then must that Faith also wherein it is wrought be imputed unto us for that also is Faith and a good Work That therefore must have another Faith from whence it must proceed And so in infinitum Many other things there are in the ensuing Explication of the Justification of Abraham the nature of his Faith and his Righteousness before God with the
in as much because Only we must say that here is a reason given Why Death passed on all Men in as much as all have sinned that is in that sin whereby death entred into the World It is true Death by vertue of the original constitution of the Law is due unto every sin when ever it is committed But the present inquiry is how Death passed at once on all Men how they came liable and obnoxious unto it upon its first entrance by the actual sin of Adam which cannot be by their own actual sin Yea the Apostle in the next Verses affirms That death passed on them also who never sinned actually or as Adam did whose sin was actual And if the actual sins of Men in imitation of Adams sin were intended then should Men be made liable to Death before they had sinned For Death upon its first entrance into the World passed on all Men before any one Man had actually sinned but Adam only But that Men should be liable unto Death which is nothing but the punishment of sin when they have not sinned is an open contradiction For although God by his sovereign Power might inflict Death on an innocent Creature yet that an innocent Creature should be guilty of death is impossible For to be guilty of death is to have sinned Wherefore this expression In as much as all have sinned expressing the desert and guilt of death then when sin and death first entred into the World no sin can be intended in it but the sin of Adam and our interest therein Eramus enim omnes ille unus homo And this can be no otherwise but by the imputation of the guilt of that sin unto us For the act of Adam not being ours inherently and subjectively we cannot be concerned in its Effect but by the imputation of its guilt For the communication of that unto us which is not inherent in us is that which we intend by imputation This is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the intended collation which I have insisted the longer on because the Apostle lays in it the foundation of all that he afterwards infers and asserts in in the whole comparison And here some say there is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his discourse that is he layeth down the Proposition on the part of Adam but doth not shew what answereth to it on the contrary in Christ. And Origen gives the reason of the silence of the Apostle herein namely Lest what is to be said therein should be abused by any unto sloth and negligence For whereas he says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as which is a note of similitude By one Man sin entred into the World and Death by sin so the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or reddition should be So by one Righteousness entred into the World and Life by Righteousness This he acknowledgeth to be the genuine filling up of the comparison but was not expressed by the Apostle Lest Men should abuse it unto negligence or security supposing that to be done already which should be done afterwards But as this plainly contradicts and everts most of what he further asserts in the Exposition of the place so the Apostle concealed not any Truth upon such considerations And as he plainly expresseth that which is here intimated Ver. 19. So he shews how foolish and wicked any such imaginations are as suppose that any countenance is given hereby unto any to indulge themselves in their sins Some grant therefore that the Apostle doth conceal the Expression of what is ascribed unto Christ in opposition unto what he had affirmed of Adam and his sin unto Ver. 19. But the truth is it is sufficiently included in the close of Ver. 14. where he affirms of Adam that in those things whereof he treats He was the Figure of him that was to come For the way and manner whereby he introduced Righteousness and Life and communicated them unto Men answered the way and manner whereby Adam introduced sin and death which passed on all the World Adam being the Figure of Christ look how it was with him with respect unto his Natural Posterity as unto sin and death so it is with the Lord Christ the Second Adam and his Spiritual Posterity with respect unto Righteousness and Life Hence we argue If the actual sin of Adam was so imputed unto all his posterity as to be accounted their own sin unto condemnation then is the actual obedience of Christ the Second Adam imputed unto all his Spiritual Seed that is unto all Believers unto Justification I shall not here further press this Argument because the ground of it will occur unto us afterwards The two next Verses containing an Objection and an Answer returned unto them wherein we have no immediate concernment I shall pass by Vers. 15 16. The Apostle proceeds to explain his Comparison in those things wherein there is a dissimilitude between the comparates But not as the offence so is the free gift for if through the offence of one many be dead much more the Grace of God and the gift by Grace by one Man Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many The opposition is between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the one hand and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the other between which a dissimilitude is asserted not as unto their opposite effects of Death and Life but only as unto the degrees of their efficacy with respect unto those effects 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the offence the fall the sin the transgression that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the disobedience of one Ver. 19. Hence the first sin of Adam is generally called the fall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which is opposed hereunto is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Donum Donum gratuitum Beneficium id quod Deus gratificatur that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is immediately explained The grace of God and the free gift by grace through Jesus Christ. Wherefore although this word in the next verse doth precisely signifie the Righteousness of Christ yet here it comprehends all the causes of our Justification in opposition unto the fall of Adam and the entrance of sin thereby The consequent and effect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the offence the fall is that many be dead No more is here intended by many but only that the effects of that one offence were not confined unto one And if we inquire who or how many those many are the Apostle tells us that they are all Men universally that is all the posterity of Adam By this one offence because they all sinned therein they are all dead that is rendered obnoxious and liable unto death as the punishment due unto that one offence And hence also it appears how vain it is to wrest those words of Ver. 12. In as much as all have sinned unto any other sin but the first sin in Adam seeing it is given as the reason why death passed on them it being here plainly affirmed That they
things we may observe in the Apostles assignation of the causes of our deliverance from a state of sin and acceptance with God 1. That he assigns the whole of this work absolutely unto Grace Love and Mercy and that with an exclusion of the consideration of any thing on our part as we shall see immediately Ver. 5 8. 2. He magnifies this Grace in a marvellous manner For 1. He expresseth it by all names and titles whereby it is signified as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mercy Love Grace and Kindness For he would have us to look only unto Grace herein 2. He ascribes such Adjuncts and gives such Epithets unto that Divine Mercy and Grace which is the sole cause of our deliverance in and by Jesus Christ as render it singular and herein solely to be adored 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rich in Mercy Great Love wherewith he loved us The exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness Ver. 4 5 6 7. It cannot reasonably be denied but that the Apostle doth design deeply to affect the Mind and Heart of Believers with a sense of the Grace and Love of God in Christ as the only cause of their Justification before God I think no words can express those conceptions of the Mind which this Representation of Grace doth suggest Whether they think it any part of their duty to be like minded and comply with the Apostle in this design who scarce ever mention the Grace of God unless it be in a way of diminution from its efficacy and unto whom such Ascriptions unto it as are here made by him are a matter of contempt is not hard to judge But it will be said these are good words indeed but they are only general there is nothing of Argument in all this adoring of the Grace of God in the work of our Salvation It may be so it seems to many But yet to speak plainly there is to me more Argument in this one consideration namely of the Ascription made in this cause unto the Grace of God in this place then in an hundred Sophisms suited neither unto the expressions of the Scripture nor the experience of them that do believe He that is possessed with a due apprehension of the Grace of God as here represented and under a sense that it was therein the design of the Holy Ghost to render it glorious and alone to be trusted unto will not easily be induced to concern himself in those additional supplies unto it from our own works and obedience which some would suggest unto him But we may yet look further into the words The case which the Apostle states the inquiry which he hath in hand whereon he determineth as to the Truth wherein he instructs the Ephesians and in them the whole Church of God is How a lost condemned sinner may come to be accepted with God and thereon saved And this is the sole inquiry wherein we are or intend in this controversie to be concerned Further we will not proceed either upon the invitation or provocation of any Concerning this his position and determination is That we are saved by Grace This first he occasionally interposeth in his enumeration of the benefits we receive by Christ Ver. 5. But not content therewith he again directly asserts it Ver. 8. in the same words for he seems to have considered how slow Men would be in the admittance of this Truth which at once deprives them of all boastings in themselves What it is that he intends by our being saved must be inquired into It would not be prejudicial unto but rather advance the truth we plead for if by our being saved eternal Salvation were intended But that cannot be the sense of it in this place otherwise than as that Salvation is included in the causes of it which are effectual in this life Nor do I think that in that expression By Grace ye are saved our Justification only is intended although it be so principally Conversion unto God and Sanctification are also included therein as is evident from Ver. 5 6. And they are no less of sovereign Grace than is our Justification it self But the Apostle speaks of what the Ephesians being now Believers and by vertue of their being so were made partakers of in this life This is manifest in the whole context For having in the beginning of the Chapter described their condition what it was in common with all the Posterity of Adam by nature Ver. 1 2 3. He moreover declares their condition in particular in opposition to that of the Jews as they were Gentiles Idolaters Atheists Ver. 11 12. Their present delivery by Jesus Christ from this whole miserable state and condition that which they were under in common with all mankind and that which was a peculiar aggravation of its misery in themselves is that which he intends by their being saved That which was principally designed in the description of this state is That therein and thereby they were liable unto the wrath of God guilty before him and obnoxious unto his judgment This he expresseth in the declaration of it Ver. 3. Answerable unto that method and those grounds he every where proceeds on in declaring the Doctrine of Justification Rom. 3.19 20 21 22 23 24. Tit. 3.3 4 5. From this state they had deliverance by Faith in Christ Jesus For unto as many as received him power is given to be the sons of God Joh. 1.12 He that believeth on him is not condemned that is he is saved in the sense of the Apostle in this place Joh. 3.15 He that believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life is saved but he that believeth not the wrath of God abideth on him Ver. 36. And in this sense saved and Salvation are frequently used in the Scripture Besides he gives us so full a description of the Salvation which he intends from Ver. 13. unto the end of the Chapter that there can be no doubt of it It is our being made nigh by the Blood of Christ Ver. 13. Our Peace with God by his death Ver. 14 15. Our Reconciliation by the Blood of the Cross Ver. 16. Our access unto God and all Spiritual priviledges thereon depending Ver. 18 19 20 c. Wherefore the inquiry of the Apostle and his determination thereon is concerning the causes of our Justification before God This he declares and fixeth both Positively and Negatively Positively 1. In the supream moving Cause on the part of God This is that free sovereign Grace and Love of his which he illustrates by its adjuncts and properties before mentioned 2. In the meritorious procuring cause of it which is Jesus Christ in the Work of his Mediation as the Ordinance of God for the rendring this Grace effectual unto his Glory Ver. 7 13 16. 3. In the only means or instrumental cause on our part which is Faith By Grace are ye saved through Faith Ver. 8. And lest he should seem to derogate any thing from the Grace
he had declared v. 10. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good Works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them And the force of his Reason which the causal Conjunction intimates the Introduction of consists in this That all good Works those concerning which he treats Evangelical Works are the Effects of the Grace of God in them that are in Christ Jesus and so are truly justified antecedently in order of nature unto them But that which he principally designed in these words was that which he is still mindful of wherever he treats of this Doctrine namely to obviate an Objection that he foresaw some would make against it and that is this If good Works be thus excluded from our Justification before God then of what use are they we may live as we list utterly neglect them and yet be justified And this very Objection do some men continue to manage with great vehemency against the same Doctrine We meet with nothing in this cause more frequently than that if our Justification before God be not of Works some way or other if they be not antecedaneously required thereunto if they are not a previous condition of it then there is no need of them Men may safely live in an utter neglect of all Obedience unto God And on this Theme men are very apt to enlarge themselves who otherwise give no great evidences of their own Evangelical Obedience To me it is marvellous that they heed not unto what party they make an Accession in the management of this Objection namely unto that of them who were the Adversaries of the Doctrine of Grace taught by the Apostle It must be elsewhere considered For the present I shall say no more but that if the answer here given by the Apostle be not satisfactory unto them if the Grounds and Reasons of the necessity and use of good Works here declared be not judged by them sufficient to establish them in their proper place and order I shall not esteem my self obliged to attempt their further satisfaction Phil. 3.8 9. Yea doubtless and I account all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledg of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him not having mine own Righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith This is the last Testimony which I shall insist upon and although it be of great importance I shall be the more brief in the consideration of it because it hath been lately pleaded and vindicated by another whereunto I do not expect any tolerable reply For what hath since been attempted by one it is of no weight He is in this matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the things that I would observe from and concerning this Testimony may be reduced into the ensuing heads 1. That which the Apostle designs from the beginning of this Chapter and in these Verses in an especial manner to declare what it is on the account whereof we are accepted with God and have thereon cause to rejoyce This he fixeth in general in an interest in and participation of Christ by Faith in opposition unto all Legal Priviledges and advantages wherein the Jews whom he reflected upon did boast and rejoyce Rejoyce in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh Vers. 3. 2. He supposeth that unto that Acceptance before God wherein we are to Rejoyce there is a Righteousness necessary And to whatever it be is the sole ground of that acceptance And to give evidence hereunto 3. He declares that there is a twofold Righteousness that may be pleaded and trusted unto to this purpose 1. Our own Righteousness which is of the Law 2. That which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith These he asserts to be opposite and inconsistent as unto the end of our Justification and acceptance with God Not having mine own Righteousness but that which is c. And an intermediate Righteousness between these he acknowledgeth not 4. Placing the instance in himself he declares emphatically so as there is scarce a greater 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or vehemency of Speech in all his Writings which of those it was that he adhered unto and placed his confidence in And in the handling of this Subject there were some things which engaged his holy mind into an earnestness of expression in the exaltation of one of these namely of the Righteousness which is of God by Faith and the depression of the other or his own Righteousness As 1. This was the turning point whereon he and others had forsaken their Judaism and betaken themselves unto the Gospel This therefore was to be secured as the main instance wherein the greatest controversie that ever was in the world was debated So he expresseth it Gal. 2.15.16 We who are Jews by nature and not Sinners of the Gentiles knowing that a man is not justified by the Works of the Law but by the Faith of Jesus Christ even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the Faith of Christ and not by the Works of the Law 2. Hereon there was great opposition made unto this Doctrine by the Jews in all places and in many of them the minds of multitudes were turned off from the Truth which the most are generally prone unto in this case and perverted from the simplicity of the Gospel This greatly affected his holy Soul and he takes notice of it in most of his Epistles 3. The weight of the Doctrine it self with that unwillingness which is in the minds of men by nature to embrace it as that which lays the axe to the root of all Spiritual Pride elation of Mind and Self-pleasing whatever whence innumerable Subterfuges have been and are sought out to avoid the efficacy of it and to keep the Souls of men from that universal resignation of themselves unto sovereign Grace in Christ which they have naturally such an aversation unto did also affect him 4. He had himself been a great Sinner in the days of his ignorance by a peculiar opposition unto Christ and the Gospel This he was deeply sensible of and therewithal of the excellency of the Grace of God and the Righteousness of Christ whereby he was delivered And men must have some experience of what he felt in himself as unto Sin and Grace before they can well understand his expressions about them 5. Hence it was that in many other places of his Writings but in this especially he treats of these things with a greater earnestness and vehemency of Spirit than ordinary Thus 1. On the part of Christ whom he would exalt he mentioneth not only the knowledg of him but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The excellency of the knowledg of Christ Jesus my Lord with an Emphasis
Protestant Divines that it is altogether needless to insist again upon them unless they had received some new inforcement which of late they have not done That which for the most part we have now to do withal are rather Sophistiacal cavils from supposed absurd consequences then real Theological arguments And some of those who would walk with most wariness between the imputation of the Righteousness of Christ and Justification by our own works either are in such a slippery place that they seem sometimes to be on the one side sometimes on the other or else to express themselves with so much caution as it is very difficult to apprehend their minds I shall not therefore for the future dare to say that this or that is any mans opinion though it appear unto me so to be as clear and evident as words can express it but that this or that opinion let it be maintained by whom it will I approve or disapprove this I shall dare to say And I will say also that the declination that hath been from the common Doctrine of Justification before God on the imputation of the Righteousness of Christ doth daily proceed towards a direct assertion of justification by works Nor indeed hath it where to rest until it comes unto that bottome And this is more clearly seen in the objections which they make against the truth then in what they plead in defence of their own opinions For herein they speak as yet warily and with a pretence of accuracy in avoiding extremes But in the other or their objections they make use of none but what are easily resolved into a supposition of Justification by Works in the grossest sense of it To insist on all particulars were endless and as was said most of those of any importance have already occasionally been spoken unto There are therefore only two things which are generally pleaded by all sorts of persons Papists Socinians and others with whom here we have to do that I shall take notice of The first and fountain of all other is that the Doctrine of Justification by the imputation of the Righteousness of Christ doth render our personal Righteousness needless and overthrows all necessity of an Holy life The other is that the Apostle James in his Epistle doth plainly ascribe our Justification unto Works and what he affirms there is inconsistent with that sense of those many other Testimonies of Scripture which we plead for For the first of these although those who oppose the truth we contend for do proceed on various different and contradictory principles among themselves as to what they exalt in opposition unto it yet do they all agree in a vehement urging of it For those of the Church of Rome who renewed this charge invented of old by others it must be acknowledged by all sober men that as managed by them it is an open calumny For the wisest of them and those of whom it is hard to conceive but that they knew the contrary as Bellarmine Vasquez Suarez do openly aver that Protestant Writers deny all inherent Righteousness Bellarmine excepts Bucer and Chemnitius that they maintain that men may be saved although they live in all manner of sin that there is no more required of them but that they believe that their sins are forgiven and that whilest they do so although they give themselves up unto the most sensual Vices and Abominations they may be assured of their Salvation Tantum Relligio potuit suadere malorum So will men out of a perverse zeal to promote their own interest in the Religion they profess wilfully give up themselves unto the worst of evils such as false accusation and open calumny and of no other nature are these assertions which none of the Writings or Preachings of those who are so charged did ever give the least countenance unto Whether the forging and promulgation of such impudent falshoods be an expedient to obtain Justification by Works in the sight of God they who continue in them had best to consider For my part I say again as I suppose I have said already that it is all one to me what Religion men are of who can justifie themselves in such courses and proceedings And for those among our selves who are pleased to make use of this Objection they either know what the Doctrine is which they would oppose or they do not If they do not the wise man tells them that he who answereth a matter before he hear it it is folly and shame unto him If they do understand it it is evident that they use not sincerity but artifices and false pretenses for advantage in their handling of Sacred things which is scandalous to Religion Socinus fiercely manageth this charge against the Doctrine of the Reformed Churches De servat par 4. cap. 1. And he made it the foundation whereon and the reason why he opposeth the Doctrine of the imputation of the satisfaction of Christ if any such satisfaction should be allowed which yet he peremptorily denies And he hath written a Treatise unto the same purpose defended by Schlictingius against Meisnerus And he takes the same honest course herein that others did before him For he chargeth it on the Divines of the Protestant Churches that they taught that God justifieth the ungodly not only those that are so and whilest they are so but although they continue so that they required no inherent Righteousness or Holiness in any nor could do so on their principles seeing the imputed Righteousness of Christ is sufficient for them although they live in sin are not washed nor cleansed nor do give up themselves unto the wayes of Duty and Obedience unto God whereby he may be pleased and so bring in Libertinisme and Antinomianisme into the Church And he thinks it a sufficient confutation of this Doctrine to alledge against it that neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers c. shall inherit the Kingdom of God And these are some of those ways which have rendred the management of controversies in Religion scandalous and abominable such as no wise or good man will meddle withal unless compelled for the necessary service of the Church For these things are openly false and made use of with a shameful dishonesty to promote a corrupt design and end When I find men at this kind of work I have very little concernment in what they say afterwards be it true or false Their rule and measure is what serves their own end or what may promote the design and interest wherein they are ingaged be it right or wrong And as for this man there is not any Article in Religion the principal whereof are rejected by him on whose account he doth with more confidence adjudge us unto eternal ruine than he doth on this of the satisfaction of Christ and the imputation of it unto them that do believe So much darkness is their remaining on the minds of the most of men so many inveterate prejudices on various
occasions are they pester'd withal especially if not under the conduct of the same inlightning spirit that some will confidently condemn others unto eternal flames for those things whereon they place on infallible grounds their hopes of eternal blessedness and know that they love God and live unto him on their account But this wretched advantage of condemning all them of Hell who dissent from them is greedily laid hold of by all sorts of persons For they thereby secretly secure their own whole party in perswasion of eternal Salvation be they otherwise what they will For if the want of that Faith which they profess will certainly damn men whatever else they be and how good soever their lives be many will easily suffer themselves to be deceived with a foolish Sophisme that then that Faith which they profess will assuredly save them be their lives what they please considering how it falls in with their inclinations And hereby they may happen also to frighten poor simple people into a compliance with them whilest they peremptorily denounce Damnation against them unless they do so And none for the most part are more fierce in the denunciation of the condemnatory sentence against others for not believing as they do then those who so live as that if there be any truth in the Scripture it is not possible they should be saved themselves For my part I believe that as to Christians in outward profession all unregenerate unbelievers who obey not the Gospel shall be damned be they of what Religion they will and none else for all that are born again do truly believe and obey the Gospel shall be saved be they of what Religion they will as unto the differences that are at this day among Christians That way wherein these things are most effectually promoted is in the first place to be embraced by every one that takes care of his own Salvation If they are in any way or Church obstructed that Church or way is so far as it doth obstruct them to be forsaken And if there be any way of profession or any visible Church state wherein any thing or things absolutely destructive of or inconsistent with these things are made necessary unto the professors of it in that way and by vertue of it no Salvation is to be obtained In other things every man is to walk according unto the light of his own mind for whatever is not of Faith is sin But I return from this digression occasioned by the fierceness of him with whom we have to do For the Objection it self that hath fallen under so perverse a management so far as it hath any pretense of sobriety in it is this and no other If God justifie the ungodly merely by his Grace through Faith in Christ Jesus so as that works of Obedience are not antecedently necessary unto Justification before God nor are any part of that Righteousness whereon any are so justified then are they no way necessary but men may be justified and saved without them For it is said that there is no connexion between Faith unto Justification as by us asserted and the necessity of Holiness Righteousness or Obedience but that we are by Grace set at liberty to live as we list yea in all manner of sin and yet be secured of Salvation For if we are made Righteous with the Righteousness of another we have no need of any Righteousness of our own And it were well it many of those who make use of this Plea would endeavour by some other way also to evidence their esteem of these things for to dispute for the necessity of Holiness and live in the neglect of it is uncomely I shall be brief in the answer that here shall be returned unto this Objection for indeed it is sufficiently answered or obviated in what hath been before discoursed concerning the nature of that Faith whereby we are justified and the continuation of the moral Law in its force as a rule of Obedience unto all believers An unprejudiced consideration of what hath been proposed on these heads will evidently manifest the Iniquity of this charge and how not the least countenance is given unto it by the Doctrine pleaded for Besides I must acquaint the Reader that some while since I have published an entire Discourse concerning the nature and necessity of Gospel Holiness with the Grounds and Reasons thereof in compliance with the Doctrine of Justification that hath now been declared Nor do I see it necessary to add any thing thereunto nor do I doubt but that the perusal of it will abundantly detect the vanity of this charge Dispensat of the Holy Spirit Book 5. Some few things may be spoken on the present occasion 1. It is not pleaded that all who do profess or have in former ages professed this Doctrine have exemplified it in an holy and fruitful conversation Many it is to be feared have been found amongst them who have lived and dyed in sin Neither do I know but that some have abused this Doctrine to countenance themselves in their sins and neglect of duty The best of holy things or truths cannot be secured from abuse so long as the Sophistry of the old Serpent hath an influence on the lusts and depraved minds of men So was it with them of old who turned the grace of God into lasciviousness or from the Doctrine of it countenanced themselves in their ungodly deeds Even from the beginning the whole Doctrine of the Gospel with the grace of God declared therein was so abused Neither were all that made profession of it immediately rendered Holy and Righteous thereby Many from the first so walked as to make it evident that their Belly was their God and their end destruction It is one thing to have only the conviction of truth in our minds another to have the power of it in our hearts The former will produce an outward profession the later only effect an inward Renovation of our Souls However I must add three things unto this concession 1. I am not satisfied that any of those who at present oppose this Doctrine do in Holiness or Righteousness in the exercise of Faith Love Zeal Self-denial and all other Christian Graces surpass those who in the last ages both in this and other Nations firmly adhered unto it and who constantly testified unto that effectual influence which it had into their walking before God Nor do I know that any can be named amongst us in the former ages who were eminent in Holiness and many such there were who did not cordially assent unto that imputation of the Righteousness of Christ which we plead for I doubt not in the least but that many who greatly differ from others in the explication of this Doctrine may be and are eminently holy at least sincerely so which is as much as the best can pretend unto But it is not comely to find some others who give very little evidence of their diligent following after that
Holiness without which no man shall see God vehemently declaming against that Doctrine as destructive of Holiness which was so fruitful in it in former days 2. It doth not appear as yet in general that an attempt to introduce a Doctrine contrary unto it hath had any great success in the Reformation of the lives of men Nor hath personal Righteousness or Holiness as yet much thrived under the conduct of it as to what may be observed It will be time enough to seek countenance unto it by declaming against that which hath formerly had better effects when it hath a little more commended it self by its fruits 3. It were not amiss if this part of the controversie might amongst us all be issued in the advise of the Apostle James Chap. 2.18 Shew me thy Faith by thy works and I will shew thee my Faith by my works Let us all labour that fruits may thus far determine of Doctrines as unto their use unto the interest of Righteousness and Holiness For that Faith which doth not evidence it self by works that hath not this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Index which James calls for whereby it may be found out and examined is of no use nor consideration herein Secondly The same Objection was from the beginning laid against the Doctrine of the Apostle Paul the same charge was managed against it which sufficiently argues that it is the same Doctrine which is now assaulted with it This himself more than once takes notice of Rom. 3.31 Do we make void the Law through Faith It is an objection that he anticipates against his Doctrine of the free Justification of sinners through Faith in the blood of Christ. And the substance of the charge included in these words is that he destroyed the Law took off all Obligation unto Obedience and brought in Antinomianism So again Chap. 6.1 What shall we say then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound Some thought this the natural and genuine consequence of what he had largely discoursed concerning Justification which he had now fully closed and some think so still If what he taught concerning the grace of God in our Justification be true it will not only follow that there will be no need of any relinquishment of sin on our part but also a continuance in it must needs tend unto the exaltation of that grace which he had so extolled The same objection he repeats again v. 15. What then shall we sin because we are not under the Law but under Grace And in sundry other places doth he obviate the same objection where he doth not absolutely suppose it especially Ephes. 2.9 10. we have therefore no Reason to be surprized with nor much to be moved at this objection and charge for it is no other but what was insinuated or managed against the Doctrine of the Apostle himself whatever inforcements are now given it by subtilty of arguing or Rhetorical exaggerations However evident it is that there are naturally in the minds of men efficacious prejudices against this part of the Mystery of the Gospel which began betimes to manifest themselves and ceased not until they had corrupted the whole Doctrine of the Church herein And it were no hard matter to discover the principal of them were that our present business However it hath in part been done before 3. It is granted that this Doctrine both singly by it self or in conjunction with whatever else concerns the grace of God by Christ Jesus is liable unto abuse by them in whom darkness and the love of sin is predominant For hence from the very beginning of our Religion some fancied unto themselves that a bare assent unto the Gospel was that Faith whereby they should be saved and that they might be so however they continued to live in sin and a neglect of all Duties of Obedience This is evident from the Epistles of John James and Jude in an especial manner Against this pernicious evil we can give no relief whilest men will love darkness more than light because their deeds are evil And it would be a fond imagination in any to think that their modellings of this Doctrine after this manner will prevent future abuse If they will it is by rendring it no part of the Gospel for that which is so was ever liable to be abused by such persons as we speak of These general observations being premised which are sufficient of themselves to discard this Objection from any place in the minds of sober men I shall only add the consideration of what answers the Apostle Paul returns unto it with a brief application of them unto our purpose The objection made unto the Apostle was that he made void the Law that he rendred good works needless and that on the supposition of his Doctrine men might live in sin unto the advancement of Grace And as unto his sense hereof we may observe 1. That he never returns that answer unto it no not once which some think is the only answer whereby it may be satisfied and removed namely the necessity of our own personal Righteousness and Obedience or Works in order unto our Justification before God For that by Faith without Works he understandeth Faith and Works is an unreasonable supposition If any do yet pretend that he hath given any such answer let them produce it as yet it hath not been made to appear And is it not strange that if this indeed were his Doctrine and the contrary a mistake of it namely that our personal Righteousness Holiness and Works had an influence into our justification and were in any sort our Righteousness before God therein that he who in an eminent manner every where presseth the necessity of them sheweth their true nature and use both in general and in particular Duties of all sorts above any of the Writers of the new Testament should not make use of this truth in answer unto an objection wherein he was charged to render them all needless and useless His Doctrine was urged with this objection as himself acknowledged and on the account of it rejected by many Rom. 10.3 4. Gal. 2.3 He did see and know that the corrupt lusts and depraved affections of the minds of many would supply them with subtile arguings against it Yea he did foresee by the Holy Spirit as appeareth in many places of his Writings that it would be perverted and abused And surely it was highly incumbent on him to obviate what in him lay these evils and so state his Doctrine upon this objection that no countenance might ever be given unto it And is it not strange that he should not on this occasion once at least somewhere or other give an intimation that although he rejected the works of the Law yet he maintained the necessity of Evangelical Works in order unto our Justification before God as the condition of it or that whereby we are justified according unto the Gospel If this were indeed his
unto the Preface unto his Exposition of his Epistles of which kind they will be directed unto more in due season But he needs not the Testimony of men nor of the whole Church together whose safety and security it is to be built on that Doctrine which he taught In the mean time it would not be unpleasant to consider but that the perverseness of the minds of men is rather a real occasion of sorrow how those who have the same design do agree in their conceptions about his Writings for some will have it that if not all yet the most of his Epistles were Written against the Gnosticks and in the confutation of their errour others that the Gnosticks took the occasion of their errours from his Writings So bold will men make with things Divine to satisfie a present interest Secondly This was not the judgment of the ancient Church for three or four hundred years For whereas the Epistles of Paul were always esteemed the principal treasure of the Church the great guide and rule of the Christian Faith this of James was scarce received as Canonical by many and doubted of by the most as both Eusebius and Hierome do testifie Thirdly The design of the Apostle James is not at all to explain the meaning of Paul in his Epistles as is pretended but only to vindicate the Doctrine of the Gospel from the abuse of such as used their liberty for a cloak of Maliciousness and turning the Grace of God into lasciviousness continued in sin under a pretence that Grace had abounded unto that end Fourthly The Apostle Paul doth himself as we have declared vindicate his own Doctrine from such exceptions and abuses as men either made at it or turned it unto Nor have we any other Doctrine in his Epistles than what he Preached all the World over and whereby he laid the foundation of Christian Religion especially among the Gentiles These things being premised I shall briefly evidence that there is not the least Repugnancy or contradiction between what is declared by these two Apostles as unto our Justification with the causes of it And this I shall do 1. By some general considerations of the nature and tendency of both their discourses 2 By a particular explication of the context in that of St. James And under the first head I shall manifest 1 That they have not the same scope design or end in their discourses That they do not consider the same question nor state the same case nor determine on the same enquiry and therefore not speaking ad idem unto the same thing do not contradict one another 2 That as Faith is a word of various signification in the Scripture and doth as we have proved before denote that which is of divers kinds they speak not of the same Faith or Faith of the same kind and therefore there can be no contradiction in what the one ascribes unto it and the other derogates from it seeing they speak not of the same Faith 3 That they do not speak of Justification in the same sense nor with respect unto the same ends 4 That as unto Works they both intend the same namely the Works of Obedience unto the moral Law As to the scope and design of the Apostle Paul the question which he answereth the case which he proposeth and determines upon are manifest in all his Writings especially his Epistles unto the Romans and Galatians The whole of his purpose is to declare how a guilty convinced sinner comes through Faith in the blood of Christ to have all his sins pardoned to be accepted with God and obtain a right unto the Heavenly inheritance that is be acquitted and justified in the sight of God And as the Doctrine hereof belonged eminently unto the Gospel whose Revelation and Declaration unto the Gentiles was in a peculiar manner committed unto him so as we have newly observed he had an especial reason to insist much upon it from the opposition that was made unto it by the Jews and Judaizing Christians who ascribed this priviledge unto the Law and our own Works of Obedience in compliance therewithal This is the case he states this the question he determines in all his Discourses about Justification and in the explication thereof declares the nature and causes of it as also vindicates it from all exceptions For whereas men of corrupt minds and willing to indulge unto their lusts as all men naturally desire nothing but what God hath made eternally inconsistent namely that they may live in sin here and come to blessedness hereafter might conclude that if it were so as he declared that we are justified freely through the Grace of God by the Imputation of a Righteousness that Originally and inherently is not our own then was there no more required of us no relinquishment of sin no attendance unto the duties of Righteousness and Holiness he obviates such impious suggestions and shews the inconsequence of them on the Doctrine that he taught But this he doth not do in any place by intimating or granting that our own Works of Obedience or Righteousness are necessary unto or have any causal influence into our Justification before God Had there been a Truth herein were not a supposition thereof really inconsistent with the whole of his Doctrine and destructive of it he would not have omitted the Plea of it nor ought so to have done as we have shewed And to suppose that there was need that any other should explain and vindicate his Doctrine from the same exceptions which he takes notice of by such a Plea as he himself would not make use of but rejects is foolish and impious The Apostle James on the other hand had no such scope or design or any such occasion for what he wrote in this matter He doth not enquire or give intimation of any such enquiry he doth not state the Case how a guilty convinced Sinner whose mouth is stopped as unto any plea or excuse for himself may come to be justified in the sight of God that is receive the Pardon of sins and the gift of Righteousness unto life To resolve this question into our own Works is to overthrow the whole Gospel But he had in hand a business quite of another nature For as we have said there were many in those days who professed the Christian Religion or Faith in the Gospel whereon they presumed that as they were already justified so that there was nothing more needful unto them that they might be saved A desirable estate they thought they had attained suited unto all the interest of the Flesh whereby they might live in Sin and neglect of all Duty of Obedience and yet be eternally saved Some suppose that this pernicious conceit was imbibed by them from the poysonous Opinions that some had then divulged according as the Apostle Paul foretold that it would come to pass 2 Tim. 4.1 2 3. For it is generally conceived that Simon Magus and his followers
Apostle infers v. 17. Even so Faith if it hath not Works is dead being alone For this was that which he undertook to prove not that we are not justified by Faith alone without Works before God but that the Faith which is alone without Works is dead useless and unprofitable Having given this first evidence unto the conclusion which in Thesi he designed to prove he reassumes the question and states it in Hypothesi so as to give it a more full demonstration v. 15. Yea a man may say thou hast Faith and I have Works shew me thy Faith without thy Works that is which is without Works or by thy Works and I will shew thee my Faith by my Works It is plain beyond denial that the Apostle doth here again propose his main question only on a supposition that there is a dead useless Faith which he had proved before For now all the enquiry remaining is how true Faith or that which is of the right Gospel kind may be shewed evidenced or demonstrated so as that their folly may appear who trust unto any other Faith whatever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Evidence or demonstate thy Faith to be true by the only means thereof which is works And therefore although he say thou hast Faith that is thou professest and boastest that thou hast that Faith whereby thou mayest be saved and I have Works he doth not say shew me thy Faith by thy Works and I will shew thee my Works by my Faith which the Antithesis would require but I will shew thee my Faith by my Works because the whole question was concerning the evidencing of Faith and not of Works That this Faith which cannot be evidenced by Works which is not fruitful in them but consists only in a bare assent unto the Truth of Divine Revelation is not the Faith that doth justifie or will save us he further proves in that it is no other but what the Devils themselves have and no man can think or hope to be saved by that which is common unto them with Devils and wherein they do much exceed them v. 11. Thou beliivest there is one God thou dost well the Devils also believe and tremble The belief of one God is not the whole of what the Devils believe but is singled out as the principal fundamental Truth and on the concession whereof an assent unto all Divine Revelation doth necessarily ensue And this is the second Argument whereby he proves an empty barren Faith to be dead and useless The second Confirmation being given unto his principal assertion He restates it in that way and under those terms wherein he designed it unto its last Confirmation But wilt thou know O vain man that Faith without Works is dead ver 20. And we may consider in the words 1 The person with whom he deals whose conviction he endeavoured him he calls a vain man not in general as every man living is altogether vanity but as one who in an especial manner is vainly puffed up in his own fleshly mind one that hath entertained vain Imaginations of being saved by an empty profession of the Gospel without any fruit of Obedience 2 That which he designs with respect unto this vain man is his conviction a conviction of that foolish and pernicious errour that he had imbibed wilt thou know O vain man 3 That which alone he designed to convince him of is that Faith without Works is dead that is the Faith which is without Works which is barren and unfruitful is dead and useless This is that alone and this is all that he undertakes to prove by his following Instances and Arguings neither do they prove any more To wrest his words to any other purpose when they are all proper and suited unto what he expresseth as his only design is to offer violence unto them This therefore he proves by the consideration of the Faith of Abraham ver 21. Was not Abraham our Father justified by Works when he had offered Isaac his Son upon the Altar Some things must be observed to clear the mind of the Apostle herein As 1 It is certain that Abraham was justified many years before the Work instanced in was performed For long before was that Testimony given concerning him he believed in the Lord and he counted it unto him for Righteousness and the imputation of Righteousness upon believing is all the Justification we enquire after or will contend about 2 It is certain that in the Relation of the Story here repeated by the Apostle there is not any one word spoken of Abrahams being then justified before God by that or any other Work whatever But 3 It is plain and evident that in the place related unto Abraham was declared to be justified by an open attestation unto his Faith and fear of God as sincere and that they had evidenced themselves so to be in the sight of God himself which God condescends to express by an assumption of humane affections Gen. 22.12 Now I know that thou fearest God seeing thou hast not withheld thy Son thine only Son from me That this is the Justification which the Apostle intends cannot be denied but out of love to strife And this was the manifestation and declaration of the Truth and Sincerity of his Faith whereby he was justified before God And hereby the Apostle directly and undeniably proves what he produceth this instance for namely that Faith without Works is dead 4 It is no less evident that the Apostle had not spoken any thing before as unto our Justification before God and the means thereof And is therefore absurdly imagined here to introduce it in the proof of what he had before asserted which it doth not prove at all 5 The only safe rule of interpreting the meaning of the Apostle next unto the scope and design of his present Discourse which he makes manifest in the reiterated proposition of it and the scope of the places matter of fact with its circumstances which he refers unto and takes his proof from and they were plainly these and no other Abraham had been long a justified believer for there were Thirty years or thereabout between the Testimony given thereunto Gen. 15. and the story of Sacrificing his Son related Gen. 22. All this while he walked with God and was upright in a course of holy fruitful Obedience Yet it pleased God to put his Faith after many others unto a new his greatest his last Trial. And it is the way of God in the Covenant of Grace to try the Faith of them that believe by such ways as seem meet unto him Hereby he manifests how precious it is the trial of Faith making it appear to be more precious than Gold 1 Pet. 1.7 and raiseth up Glory unto himself which is in the nature of Faith to give unto him Rom. 4.20 And this is the state of the case as proposed by the Apostle namely how it may be tried whether the Faith which men profess