Justification from Eternity and in Christ saith We are in our own Persons made True Owners and Injoyers of Justification at that Instant when we first Believe which Act is the Completion and Accomplishment of the former and is that Great and Famous Justification by Faith which the Scripture so much Inculcates and almost only mentioneth yea and so speaks of it as if we were not Justified at all till then So 1 Cor. 6.9 Such were some of you but now ye are Sanctified now ye are Justified which before they were not And therefore before Faith the Scripture Pronounceth the very Elect even those whom Christ Died for Children of Wrath as well as others till they Believe Ephes 2.3 So as when we were said to be Justified by Faith it is not only because then Faith Apprehends that Justification which was in God's Breast before and that then we are Justified merely in Ford Conscientiae tho we were in Foro Dei as much as ever as some express it But further it must be said that even in Foro Dei in God's Court and according to the Judgment of that Open Court which God hath set up in his Word and according to the Proceedings of his Word which is the Rule he professeth to Judge Men by and therein he keeps to the Rule of his Word as Christ saith I Judge no Man but the Word which I speak shall Judge you John 12.47 48. God doth Judge and Pronounce his Elect Vngodly and Vnjustified till they Believe yea and by the Spirit of Bondage he Testifieth to their Consciences that before Faith they are Vngodly and Vnjustified and Children of Wrath If it were not a Real Truth the Spirit of God would not evidence this to them 2. What Dr. Goodwin here affirms is consonant to what 't is declared in the Savoy Confession For in Cap. 11. § 4. it is thus God did from all Eternity Decree to Justifie all the Elect and Christ did in the fulness of Time Die for their Sins and rise again for their Justification Nevertheless they are not Iustified Personally until the Holy Spirit doth in due time actually Apply Christ unto them And as in Cap. 3. § 6. They having fall'n in Adam are by their Original and Actual Sins Bound over to the Wrath of God and Curse of the Law and are made subject to Death with all Miseries Spiritual Temporal and Eternal So Cap. 6. § 6. Thus they continue till they are Effectually called as in Cap. 10. § 1. All those whom God hath Predestinated unto Life and only those he is pleased in his Appointed time effectually to call by his Word and Spirit out of that State of Sin and Death in which they are by Nature to Grace and Salvation by Jesus Christ. Besides as it is expresly said Cap. 1. § 4. That they are not Personally Justified till Christ be Actually Applied unto them So in the same Chap. § 1. 't is declared That those whom God effectually calleth he also Freely Justifieth by Imputing Christ's Active Obedience unto the whole Law and Passive Obedience in his Death for their whole and sole Righteousness they Receiving and Resting on him and his Righteousness by Faith And in the very next Section Faith thus Receiving and Resting on Christ and his Righteousness is the alone Instrument of Justification yet it is not alone in the Person Justified but is ever accompanied with all other Saving Graces and is no Dead Faith but worketh by Love The Third and Fourth Errours 3. That Pardoned Sin is no Sin and therefore God can't see Sin in his People to be Displeased with them for their Sins nor doth God express his Fatherly Displeasure against them by any Afflictions laid upon them 4. That Believers are not bound to Confess or Mourn over Sin as committed by them or Pray for Pardon of Sin in making a Daily Acknowledgment of a Need of it because 't was Pardoned before committed and Pardoned Sin is no Sin Our Opposition We have always held 1. That Pardoned yea Mortified Sins are truly and properly Sins 2. That God seeth the Sins of his own People and is Displeased with them for their Sins 3. That when Believers do sin it is their Duty to humble themselves Confess their Sins and pray for Pardon The Declaration of our Faith at the Savoy is so distinct and full against these Errours that whoever will consult the following Passages taken out of it cannot but think himself bound in Conscience to own our Orthodoxy For in Cap. 6. § 4. we affirm That the Corruption of Nature during this Life doth remain in those that are Regenerated and altho it be through Christ Pardoned and Mortified yet both it self and all the Motions thereof are Truly and Properly Sin In Cap. 11. § 5. God doth continue to Forgive the Sins of those that are Justified and altho they can never fall from the State of Justification yet they may by their Sins fall under God's Fatherly Displeasure and in that Condition they have not usually the Light of his Countenance Restored unto them until they humble themselves Confess their Sins Beg Pardon and Renew their Faith and Repentance In Cap. 15. § 2 3. Whereas there is none that doth Good and Sinneth not and the best of Men may through the Power and Deceitfulness of their Corruptions dwelling in them with the Prevalency of Temptation fall into Great Sins and Provocations God hath in the Covenant of Grace mercifully provided that Believers so Sinning and Falling be Renewed through Repentance unto Salvation That this Saving Repentance is an Evangelical Grace whereby a Person being by the Holy Ghost made sensible of the manifold Evils of his Sin doth by Faith in Christ Humble himself for it with Godly Sorrow Detestation of it and Self Abhorrency Praying for Pardon and Strength of Grace c. The Fifth Errour 5. That Believers ought not to be afaid of committing Sin because their Sins can do them no hurt Our Opposition If the Sins of Believers do Impair their Graces and Comforts harden their Hearts wound their Consciences hurt and scandalize others Grieve God's Holy Spirit Expose to his Fatherly Displeasure and bring Temporal Judgments too upon them then surely their Sins hurt them and they should be Afraid to commit them and if we have declared thus much in our Confession 't is sufficient to clear us from this Imputation And that we have freely and readily owned thus much is plain from what is in Cap. 5. § 5. The Most Wise and Gracious God doth oftentimes leave for a Season his own Children to Manifold Temptations and the Corruptions of their own Hearts to Chastise them for their former Sins or to Discover to them the hidden strength of Corruption and Deceitfulness of their Hearts that they may be Humbled and to make them more Watchful against all Future Occasions of Sin In Cap. 17. § 3. And tho they may fall into Grievous Sins and for a time continue therein
whereby they Incur God's Displeasure and Grieve his Holy Spirit come to have their Graces and Comforts Impaired have their Hearts Hardned and their Consciences Wounded Hurt and Scandalize others and bring Temporal Judgments upon them Selves yet they are and shall be kept by the Power of God through Faith unto Salvation What can be more opposite unto this Errour The Sixth Errour 6. That they must do no Good Work or Duty for their own Benefit or with an Eye to their own Salvation Our Opposition That Believers must do good Works expecting Blessings in the performance thereof So in Chap. 19. § 6. Altho True Believers be not under the Law as a Covenant of Works yet is it of great use to them as well as to others in that as a Rule of Life informing them of the Will of God and their Duty it Directs and Binds them to walk accordingly The Promises of it in like manner show them God's Approbation of Obedience and what Blessings they may Expect upon the Performance thereof altho not as Due to them by the Law as a Covenant of Works so as a Man's Doing Good and Reforming from Evil because the Law Encourageth to the One and Deterreth from the other is no Evidence of his being under the Law and not under Grace And § 7. Neither are the forementioned Vses of the Law contrary to the Graces of the Gospel but do sweetly Comply with it the Spirit of Christ Subduing and Enabling the Will of Man to do that freely and chearfully which the Will of God Revealed in the Law Required to be done And in Cap. 16. § 6. The Persons of Believers being Accepted through Christ their Good Works also are Accepted in him God looking upon them in his Son is Pleased to Accept and Reward that which is Sincere altho accompanied with many Weaknesses and Imperfections The Seventh Errour 7. Believers not having in themselves an Ability to do Good Works are not bound to Perform any good Duty unless Excited thereunto by a special Motion of the Spirit Our Opposition We have fully Declared our selves against this Errour in Cap. 16. § 3. Their Ability to do Good Works is not at all in themselves but wholly from the Spirit of Christ yet are they not hereupon to grow Negligent as if they were not bound to Perform any Duty unless upon a Special Motion of the Spirit but they ought to be Diligent in Stirring up the Grace of God that is in them The Eighth Errour 8. That Sanctification evidenced by the Spirit of God to their Consciences is not a Sign Mark or Evidence of their Justification and that Marks and Signs for the Tryal of a Believer's Faith are of no use For Faith lying in a Full Perswasion and Assurance that their Persons were Actually Justified and Pardoned in Christ it is a Sin to Question Whether they do Savingly Believe or no Our Opposition It hath been our constant Judgment 1. That saving Faith lieth not in a Full Perswasion and Assurance that our Sins are Actually Pardoned 2. That Marks and Signs for the Tryals of our Spiritual Estate are Vseful and to be sought after 3. That Sanctification evidenced by the Spirit of God to our Consciences is a certain Sign and Mark of our Justification To the First the Judicious Dr. Goodwin hath in his Vol. 4. Part 2. Lib. 2. Cap. 1. delivered our True Sense when he saith That that Act of Faith which Justifieth a Sinner is Distinct from knowing he hath Eternal Life and may therefore be without it because it doth not necessarily contain Prevailing Assurance in it By Prevailing Assurance I mean such an Assurance as overpowreth Doubts and Sense to the contrary so as in the Believer's Knowledge he is able to say Christ is mine and my Sins are Forgiven such an Assurance whereby Man is a Conquerour as Paul speaks Rom. 8.37 Amongst the several Reasons he gives to prove that True Faith may be without such Assurance he presseth this viz. Wicked Men are not bound immediately to have Assurance and therefore it is not the Essential Act wherein Faith consists They are Condemned you know for not Believing Now if the First Act of Faith commanded were to believe that Christ is mine and that my Sins are Forgiven how could a Man in the State of Nature be Bound to it For such an Assurance of Christ's being his is not a Truth in the State wherein he stands but yet he is every Hour bound to come to Christ as the Fountain of Life and cast himself on him for his Pardon What the Doctor here delivereth is agreeable to what is in our Confession which hath two distinct Chapters the 14th about saving Faith and the 18th of the Assurance of Grace and Salvation giving distinct Definitions of each and clearing it that Assurance is not an Essential of Saving Faith and that Faith doth not in all grow up to the Attainment of a Full Assurance affirming That the principal Acts of saving Faith are Accepting Receiving and Resting upon Christ alone for Justification Sanctification and Eternal Life by Vertue of the Covenant of Grace § 2. And chap. 18. § 3. This Infallible Assurance doth not belong to the Essence of Faith but that a True Believer may wait long and Conflict with many Difficulties before he be Partaker of it To the second and third Dr. Goodwin in the Place but now cited cap. 5. goeth on to consider What the Apostle John hath written that may help a Believer to this Assurance what Directions what Helps what Evidence he has described whereby he may come to be Assured it directs them to two Trinities of Witnesses where three are in Heaven and three on Earth For I take it that all these six Witnesses have their Evidence set to one Record both that Christ is the Fountain of Life and that God hath given to a Believer Eternal Life And a little after the Doctor insists on Sanctification as the second Witness on Earth The second Witness saith he is the Work and Workings of Sanctification Water the Believer finds that closing thus with Christ changeth him Renews him washeth him from the Power of Sin puts a new Spirit and Principle into him Every Grace is a stream in him and all his Graces do Testify also if they be observed Read this Epistle of John you will find he cuts this Water into many Rills and Signs in every of which as so many Signs Believers may see and have some Evidence of their Estates So far the Doctor who still keeps close unto our Confession in which particularly chap. 18. § 1. it 's said Altho Temporary Believers and other Unregenerate Men may vainly deceive themselves with false Hopes and Carnal Presumptions of being in the Favour of God and State of Salvation which Hope of theirs shall Perish Thus they shew what false Hopes and carnal Presumptions some Unregenerate Men may have To which they add § 3. That a Believer being enabled by the Spirit
Christ than what is commonly received by Protestants and Inculcated by our Ablest Divines at Home and Abroad in their Writings against Papists and Socinians which is That by the Imputation of our Sins unto Christ he became Accountable unto God for them He was made under that Law we violated and our Guilt was charged upon him yea our Sins were the Proper Meritorious Cause of his Sufferings and his Sufferings a proper Punishment for our Sins as a Learned Divine of the Church of England Dr. South in his 3d. Vol. of Sermons p. 488. God in the whole Procedure of Christ's Sufferings must be considered as a Judge Exacting and Christ as a Person paying down a Recompence or Satisfaction for Sin For tho Christ was as Pure and Undefiled with the least Spot of Sin as Purity and Innocency it self yet he was pleased to make himself the Greatest Sinner in the World by Imputation and rendring himself a Surety Responsible for our Debts For as it is said 2 Cor. 5.21 He who knew no Sin was made Sin for us When the Justice of God was lifting up the Sword of Vengeance over our Heads Christ snatch'd us away from the Blow and substituted his own Body in our Room to receive the whole Stroke of that Dreadful Retribution Inflicted by the Hand of an Angry Omnipotence Thus far this Learned Doctor In opposition hereunto Bellarmine saith That by the Imputation of Sin unto Christ he must be Polluted and thence be Denominated a Sinner in every kind To which the Answer of Dr. Owen p. 277. is full This would saith he be true if our Sins could be Communicated unto Christ by Transfusion so as to be his Inherently But their being so only by Imputation gives no countenance to any such Pretence However there is a Notion of Legal Vncleanness where there is no Inherent Defilement Numb 16.7 8. The Second That we are not every way as Righteous as Christ That we are made Righteous in Christ by Imputation of his Righteousness unto us is what we firmly Believe And whereas the Jesuit objects against this Doctrine That then we are as Righteous as Christ himself because we are Righteous with his Righteousness Dr. Owen with good Reason replies To say We are as Righteous as Christ is to make a Comparison between the Personal Righteousness of Christ and our Personal Righteousness if the Comparison be of Things of the same kind But this is Foolish and Impious for notwithstanding all our Personal Righteousness we are sinful He knew no Sin And if the Comparison be between Christ's Personal Inherent Righteousness and Righteousness Imputed unto us Inhaesion and Imputation being things of divers kinds it is fond and of no Consequence Christ was Actively Righteous we are Passively so When our Sin was Imputed unto Him He did not thereby become a Sinner as we are Actively and Inherently a Sinner but Passively only and in God's Estimation As He was made Sin yet knew no Sin so we are made Righteous yet are sinful in our selves Of Justifie p. 509. or as Dr. Crew of Justif Ed. 2. p. 96. We are as Righteous Christ need to make us before God 3. That none may expect to be Pardoned in a State of Vnbelief and Impenitence We have by referring our selves to the Assemblies Confession constantly owned thus much as well as by our Preaching and Writings In the Confession of the Assembly it is said cap. 15. § 3. Altho Repentance be not to be rested in as any Satisfaction for Sin or any Cause of the Pardon thereof which is the Act of God's Free Grace in Christ yet is it of such Necessity to all Sinners that none may expect Pardon without it The Fourth That continued Repentance and Holiness are necessary to our Possession of Eternal Life for without it we can't see God Our Confession at the Savoy fully Asserts cap. 15. § 4. That Repentance is to be continued through the whole Course of our Lives upon the account of the Body of Death and the Motions thereof And in cap. 13. § 1. They who are effectually called are also further Sanctified Really and Personally by his Word and Spirit dwelling in them the Dominion of the whole Body of Sin is destroyed and the several Lusts thereof are more and more weakened and mortified and they more and more Quickned and Strengthned in all Saving Graces to the Practise of all true Holiness without which no Man shall see the Lord. These Things we Offer to be considered that it may appear to the Conviction of all that our Soundness in the Faith and Agreement with the Reformed Churches is so very Conspicuous and Manifest that it cannot but Surprize and Astonish the Vnprejudiced to hear any Accusing us and move them to conclude That our Accusers themselves believe not the Truth of their own Charge but have brought it against us to the End they may the more effectually divert from an observing how and after what manner they insinuate and spread their own Erroneous Opinions In this Apprehension many will be confirmed when they consider that the Matters charged upon us are not only without the least colour of Reason but most contrary to our known and avowed Principles Nor hath there been any thing offered that we know of to countenance this Accusation but the raising Another which has as little Truth and no more ground for it than the former which is That we Encourage Ignorant Persons and Men of no good Report to enter on the Ministry who make it their Business to Preach up the Errours charged upon us which we would never have done had we not favoured their Notions To which we Reply 1. That touching Mens entering on the Ministry we yield no more than other Protestant Churches such as the Churches of Scotland Holland and England have hitherto done viz. That Men of Sound Knowledge in the Substantials of Religion Discreet Holy and Humble whose Hearts God Inclines to the Work of the Ministry tho they have not had the Advantages of Eminency in the Academick Learning or any considerable skill in Philosophy yet when the State of the Churches and some special Circumstances in regard to their Opportunity of Service and Usefulness require it may enter on this Holy Work in an Orderly way with Approbation 2. We do also declare That they who enter on the Ministry ought ordinarily to be endued with a competent Measure of Learning which is necessary for the Defence of Truth against subtile Adversaries as well as with other Ministerial Gifts And that they may obtain this Qualification they ought to use those Helps that are most proper in order thereunto In this we Agree with Dr. Goodwin who in Vol. 4. of Church Governm L. 7. Cap. 3. saith There is a Generation of Men that are against Acquir'd Knowledge or that which is sought out by Study or received from others and would have all Infused Now consider Timothy had the main and chief of his Knowledge