Eternal Life On account of this Righteousness being thus made theirs it is as I conceive that they are said to be Worthy Rev. 3.4 to walk with Christ in white worthy of Joyful Communion with Christ not in themselves but as in him and having his Righteousness upon them in whom they are made the Righteousness of God 3. This Righteousness is upon Believers not only for the change of their Estate at first from a State of Wrath and Condemnation to a State of Favour with God and Justification but also for the continuing of them in that Estate for ever This is that which the Apostle saith Rom. 5.21 Grace reigneth through Righteousness unto Eternal Life So that Believers stand before God in this Righteousness having it upon them all their Life as well as at their first believing and being translated into a justified Estate It is in this Righteousness in which they stand justified and not in their own Graces of Sanctification or in any of their own new obedience Thus the Holy Ghost teacheth us to judge and believe when he saith 1 Joh. 2.12 If any man sin that is if any Believer sin for of them he speaks we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is no only was or hath been but he is a propitiation for our sins And 1 Job 1.7 If we walk in the light as God is in the light the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all Sin Our walking in the Light hath no influence at all to cleanse us from the filth contracted by the least Sin that is found with us This I take to be one reason why it is called Everlasting Righteousness Dan. 9.24 The Righteousness of the first Adam in which he was created was not so no he sinn'd and forfeited and lost it it lasted no longer than while he continued in all things contained in the Law to do them But it is not so with the Righteousness which the Messiah brings in if it be once upon us through Faith it is upon us everlastingly Thence Believers are said to be b fore the Throne of God without fault Rev. 14.5 which is much too high an expression to be used of the best Saint under Heaven on the account of his Obedient and Holy Walking nothing but the Righteousness of Christ being upon them can set them before the Throne of God without fault Of this mind was the Holy Apostle Paul when with so much vehemency and patheticalness he renounceth his own Righteousness and shuns standing in it for Justification unto Life Phil. 3.9 as dross that was of no wortlh as loss that would undoe him yea as dung which would defile him and render him abhorred This he speaks of his own Righteousness and thus his heart stood affected towards it in the business of his Justification even then when he had been converted and sanctified many years and done and suffered much for Christ in an excellent manner and with a choice and Evangelical Spirit Bellarmin indeed would have Paul there by his own Righteousness to mean nothing but his own Hypocrisie or formality and is so very angry with Chemnitius for interpreting Paul's own Righteousness there and the all things which he renounceth as comprizing them under his Grace of Sanctification and his new Obedience that he chargeth him for it with blasphemy And indeed 't is no wonder if depreciating and crying down a Man 's own Righteousness be resented as Blasphemy by a proud Cardinal an haughty Jesuit and blind Papist But the Light and Pregnancy of the Apostles Expressions are so strong and clear that it is somewhat surprizing that any pretending to be a Protestant (a) Such as Dr. Sherl See Antisoz p. 547 to 568 and Mr. Williams See Pref. p. 9. and p. 202 203 204 209. Grotius indeed goes the same way Annot. in loc And I learn by Mr. Rutherf of the Cov. p. 171. that Arminians and Socinians do so too But I do not reckon him or them among Protestants It is like Grotius and the Arminians might have it from the Racovian Catechisme cap. 9. p. 194. should lick up that Popish Self-justiciaries vomit But vain Man would be wise though he be born like the wild Asses Colt There is in us an obstinate adherency to our own Righteousness and a desperate lothness to foregoe it and be beaten off utterly from it And thence if we see we cannot have any thing of our own before Conversion to bring us into a justified State yet we struggle as for Life that somewhat of our own something done by us or inhering in us may some way or other be our Justifying Righteousness or a part of it may have some band in continuing us in that Estate though it could do nothing to bring us into it But doubtless Holy David's heart was under the conduct of the Blessed Spirit of Wisdom and Grace when he resolved to make mention of the Righteousness of God and of it only for his acceptance as well as to walk in the strength of the Lord God for his Assistance Psal 71.16 And this was not at first Conversion only that he might be put into a State of Justification but it was when he was old and gray-headed and had been sanctified and done much for God and been in a justified Estate many Years See ver 9. 4. This free effectual valid abiding imputation of this righteousness unto Believers is such and it is through Faith so upon them that they are thereby constituted as righteous as Christ is righteous as their Surety When I say they are by its being upon them made as Righteous as Christ is Righteous as he is their Surety I mean it not in a way of Similitude only but in a way of Equality I am well aware that this is looked on as a monstrous absurdity and horrid impossibility by Papists and others who contend against the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ unto us at all And no wonder for Christ and his Righteousness are a stumbling stone and rock of offence to many in Israel it was so of old Rom. 9.32 33. and it will be to as long as that word 1 Pet. 2.8 stands firm that there are any in the World who are appointed to stumble at that stumbling stone But we must not foregoe a truth so certain so clear so comfortable though all the Unbelievers in the World stumble and quarrel at it That I may if possible prevent the offence I desire you would observe that I do not make comparison between the Righteousness of Christ and the Righteousness of Believers by their being sanctified and their Holy walking In this regard there is only a similitude to dream of an Equality would be prodigious Ignorance and blasphemous Madness Nor is the comparison between the Righteousness of Believers by Imputation and their Righteousness in point of Sanctification These are not the things compared together To make these equal would be foolish in
THE Righteousness of God THROUGH FAITH UPON All without Difference who believe In Two Sermons on Romans 3.22 By NATHANIEL MATHER Preacher of the Gospel LONDON Printed for Nathaniel Hiller at the Princes-Arms in Leaden-Hall-Street over against St. Mary Axe 1694. To the READER I Must acknowledge that when I was called to Preach in that Audience where these Sermons were delivered I had some Debates rolling in my Mind what kind of Subject I should pitch upon There were enow offered to my Thoughts wherein I might have more gratified or at least have less displeased our Neonomians as they are lately named but as truly and justly Semisocinians as the antient Church and all Posterity since hath called the off-spring of Pelagius his Heresie Semi-Pelagians But I saw with grief and detestation the Blessed Gospel of our Salvation craftily and insolently assaulted by them in the very Vitals and Fundamentals of it In publico discrimine omnis homo miles est Every Christian much more every Minister is set for the defence of the Gospel especially at such a time when the Truth labours under guileful and impetuous opposition I doubted my Quiet would be attempted and my Doctrine and Reputation would be angrily reflected on As to the last though I value it and believe I ought to do so yet I can truly say convictions that I ought to sacrifice both that and my Quiet to the service of the labouring Truth of God had their weight with me My Heart hath been long fixed in this Principle that Reputation is little to be valued save only so far as it may be of service unto Christ and if he have any use to make of it he will preserve it while I walk before him in Integrity With him I have thus left it and having so done my Heart is secure and at rest about it As to my Quiet I confess I do prize and love it as remembring Prov. 17.14 and 18.6 but to Maintain and Preach that Precious and Saving Truth which the Churches of Christ have been in possession of ever since the Reformation is not entring into contention especially when some abandon it and others indeavour to wrest it from us And there is a contending and that earnestly for the Faith once delivered to the Saints which is a Duty Besides I am not far from that place where the weary are at rest and the wicked cease from troubling the thoughts whereof I confess are sweeter to me because I have very sadning apprehensions of the portendency of that apostasie from the Truth which hath invaded so many of the rising Generation not among Conformists only but Dissenters also As to my Quiet I have this relief that it is not in the power of any mortal to interrupt or disturb my inward composedness of Spirit or to lay me under any law of unquietness within my self I know and am assured that a due exercise of Faith Meekness Self-denyedness and such like Graces will establish my Heart in a just and holy unconcernedness though such representations should still be made of me for these Sermons sake as to fill my Friends in other Lands to whom I am known with trouble and consternation I use the very words of a Letter wherein I am informed that such Reports have been sent even so far As to the Doctrine delivered in these Sermons it hath been of use to me for the direction and guidance of my Heart in transacting with God about Pardon and Acceptance to Eternal Life I hope it may be so unto others My Hope my Life my Salvation my All is therein I have not delivered any thing but what I know and am assured is according to the Eternal Truth of God and wherein I have going before me as great Lights as any that God in these latter Ages hath set up in his Church How little or rather nothing I have varied in what is Printed from what was delivered in Preaching I must leave to those that shall read and did hear them I have heard of two Passages that have been taxed Of them therefore I have in a short Postscript given a further account As to the Publishing of them in Print if the Doctrine delivered in them be the Truth of God as I believe it is I need not make any Apology Many that know me know my backwardness to appear in Print Nevertheless in thus Publishing these Sermons my Heart condemns me not knowing that I have therein only indeavoured to communicate in a more diffusive and induring way that Truth the Faith whereof I have received and wherein I have many Years lived and in which I hope and am perswaded I shall dye and which it is of concernment to have preserved and propagated The Blessing of him whose Truth it is go along therewith London this 14th of the 2d Month 1694. Nath. Mather ERRATA PAge 20. line 3. for in is read is in l. 9. a fine r. 1 John 2.1 l. 6. a fine f not p. 21. l. 7. a fine r. comprizing under them his Graces p. 25. l. 4. put the comma after is p. 26. l. 2. dele of p. 27. l. 4. a fine r. 2 Pet. 3.11 p. 31. f. namely r. only p. 36. l. 9. a fine f. John 15.19 r. John 15.9 p. 39. l. 14. their r. there l. 10. a fine f. they do not r. they who do not p. 42. l. 16. r. â— 28 p. 43. l. 7. f. might r. weight f. Psal 88.8 r. Psal 88.7 p. 59. l. 20. r. Phil. 3.12 ROM 3.22 Even the Righteousness of God which is by Faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference IN the first five Chapters of this Epistle the Apostle sets himself to declare and clear up the great Doctrine of Justification And he first speaks to it Negatively shewing and evincing that by the deeds of the Law there shall no Flesh be justified in the sight of God which is the conclusion and sum of all his foregoing Discourse as you may see at the 20th Verse of this Chapter Having made out that neither Jew nor Gentile can ever be justified by the Deeds of the Law he declares affirmatively in the Verse before the Text and so onward how it is then that men may be Justified and he shews that it is by the righteousness of God manifested without the Law yet witnessed to by the Law and by the prophets that is by the Books of Moses and the rest of the Old Testament But how come men to be justified by this Righteousness manifested without the Law and thus witnessed unto This the Apostle declares in the words of the Text telling us that this righteousness is through faith upon all that beleeve and that without difference There is no need in order to what I intend to say any thing for explaining of the meaning of any of the words of the Text. The Doctrine which I design to speak to from them is plain and obvious and it is
of the Altar as you see Joab did 1 King 3.28 even in like manner doth the Soul act in believing it comes it flees to Christ for refuge it lays hold upon him Moreover Believing is called by the Holy Ghost committing our Selves and Souls and Concerns unto Christ and God in him Psal 31.5 1 Pet. 4.19 Psal 37.5 and 10.14 Prov. 16.3 I know the word in the Original in those places is different but so it is rendred by our Translators and that not amiss And the Apostle Paul plainly shows that believing on Christ is a committing of our Souls unto him when speaking of himself he saith I know whom I have believed and know that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him 2 Tim. 1.12 Lastly for I will mention no more Believing is called leaning staying resting viz. on Christ and on God Isa 50.10 This I conceive was taught them and us by that Ordinance which injoyned him that brought the Sacrifice to lay his hand or lean with his hand upon his Sacrifice Exod. 29.10 Lev. 1.4 and 3.2 8 33. and 4.4 15 24 29 33. and 16.21 I know that Rite is by many interpreted as signifying the transferring or translating of the Sin of him that brought the Sacrifice unto or upon the Sacrifice which was to be offer'd for him But the laying of our Sins upon Christ is not our act but Gods Isa 53.6 and the word used in Exodus and Leviticus doth signify a leaning with stress and might and is rendred Psal 88.8 lyeth hard and Ezek. 24.2 beset that is pressed upon with force and strength And the Apostle if I mistake not the meaning of the place which I think I do not tells us Heb. 6.1 2. that Faith towards God or on God is the doctrine of laying on of hands that is the thing taught by that Rite or Ceremony even as repentance from dead works is the doctrine of or thing taught by their Levitical washings which I take to be there meant by Baptisms However it is manifest that the Holy Ghost frequently sets forth believing by leaning staying resting and words of like import And very apposite and lively Metaphors they are for they do hold forth both the nature and the tendency of Faith The Nature of Faith inasmuch as in believing the Soul doth make an adventure of it self and all its concernments for Eternity upon Christ and this Righteousness of his Such an Adventure that if Christ and his righteousness should fail it it hath no other hopes or expectations but must fall and perish and sink it self for ever And the tendency of Faith namely that it tends to bring in ease and peace repose and tranquillity yea Assurance and humble holy Security into the Soul Or as the Apostle expresseth it Rom. 15.13 it tends to the Souls being filled with all peace and joy for the end of Faith to which it tends is joy unspeakable and full of Glory 1 Pet. 1.8 9. The word used in that forementioned Rite which I said signifies to lean upon with stress and weight doth also signify to susteyn support uphold and is often so translated It is such a leaning and relying as brings in relief and support and on that account it very aptly sets forth believing Quest 5. VVhat is the reference that Faith hath unto this Righteousness of Christs being upon them that believe For the Text and Doctrine say it is through Faith unto them and upon them Answer 1. Some there are who possibly out of a godly fear of giving too much in this matter to man or any thing done by him seem to deny that Faith hath any reference unto Christs Righteousness being upon us save onely by way of discerning or evidence And accordingly they seem to make Justification to be nothing else but Gods speaking peace in the Conscience of the Sinner and causing it to see and hear what was done for him in Heaven long before Possibly they might be led into that mistake by the Expression of some great Divines Rutherf Exerc. de gr cap. 2. p. 24. Owen Append. against Biddle p. 19. Bradsh of Justific C. 23. To. 6. C. 24. To. 15. Nort. Orth. Evang. pag. 311 315 317 318 322. who are far from being Antinomians that the Sentence of Justification is terminated on the sinners Conscience Wherein I conceive they mean no more but that it is a sentence of God so declared in his Word as that the Conscience may and ought to receive it and sit down satisfied and acquiescing in it For surely to confound Justification and Assurance and make them one and the same must needs be a wide mistake when the Scripture plainly declares that they may be separated Isa 50.10 Though it is true that Faith if it be sound and saving doth tend towards Assurance or Peace of Conscience and that there is some kind of Assurance in all Faith if it be the Faith of Gods Elect Faith of the operation of God Namely there is an assured satisfying perswasion in the heart concerning the Object of Faith or the thing believed on This kind of Assurance God requires in all acceptable Worship Heb. 10.22 and the Apostle tells us there was this Assurance in the Thessalonians at their first believing 1 Thes 1.5 Nevertheless to make Faith to have no other influence unto our Justification or Christs Righteousness being upon us than to discern and see it doth not come up unto the expression of the Holy Ghost in the Text where he saith it is upon us through Faith not it is seen or discerned to be upon us 2. Of late some chiefly Socinians and Semi-socinians who reject the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness allowing only the benefits or effects of it to be upon us and communicated to us but not the Righteousness it self find much fault with that word instrument in this matter and contend eagerly that the respect which Faith hath to the Righteousness of Christ being on us and to our Justification must be expressed by the word condition But this is not a Scriptural Word and therefore we are at liberty to receive or to refuse it as it agrees or disagrees with what the Scripture speaks in this business And the truth is that word Condition is ambiguous and of an uncertain sound and signification and therefore there is danger in using it for there may be deadly Poyson under it Because there are many sorts of Conditions Some are valuable considerations yea some that are the price and procuring Causes of that whereof they are the Conditions Grevinchovius the Arminian will have Faith to be such a condition as that the foresight thereof moves the Will of God as a Judge to give us the reward of Life And another among our selves asserts that all the benefits of the Covenant of Grace among which surely Justification Adoption the Righteousness of Christ being upon us and our being united to him are none of the least are rewards given not indeed
for our believing saith he not by way of Merit not of Debt yet in way of reward Another who speaks clearly and less covertly saith expresly that God justifies and saves none but for their believing And another who searched and saw as far as either of them and speaks out saith plainly that we are Pardon'd Justified and Adopted to Eternal Life as a reward to Believers for their Faith and Obedience And withal tells us in the same Book that Reward and Merit are Relatives so as that wherever there is Reward following there Merit went before and that there is no Reward but it is a Reward of Merit 'T is true indeed he will have the Merit of our repenting and believing but a subordinate Merit and Christ's the principal But what is this better than the old Popish Notion that Christ Merited that we might Merit and we Merit in the virtue of his Blood and by Gods Grace And indeed he expresly owns this Tenet of theirs But surely this is another Gospel that we are pardoned justified adopted and vested in the Priviledges of the New Covenant Estate as a reward of or for our believing repenting or new obedience and a Doctrine grosser than many Learned Papists hold as great Merit-mongers as they are For they insist upon it as one condition requisite unto Merit that the Person Meriting the Reward must first be in a State of Grace and Favour with God and therefore Justification and Adoption cannot be Merited by us nor are conferred upon us as a reward of any thing that we do Yea methinks it is a very pernicious and Soul-destroying Error if there be or ever have been any such in the World For if a Mans Heart be influenced by it and moulded according to it in all his treating with God and applications to him for pardon of Sin and Justification and adoption he is wholly led aside quite off from the way of the Gospel and it is utterly impossible he should ever truely believe For Faith receives and looks for Union to Christ interest in this righteousness of his pardon of Sin Justification and Adoption not as a reward for or of any thing that we do but meerly of Free Grace and wholly for the sake of Christ and his righteousness I conclude therefore that though this Word Condition may be used and is so by some in a sound sense and with a good meaning concerning Faith and its reference to the righteousness of Christ being upon us yet it is neither convenient nor safe For it may occasion an unhappy stumbling and a Soul-ruining mistake And therefore I cannot but joyn with that great Divine Dr. Tho. Goodwin on Eph. 2. Serm. 22. p. 301. who wisheth it were laid aside and wholly disused because there is danger in it or at least if men be impotently fond of the word that it were both more soundly meant and better explained than it is by our present Contenders for it 3. The generality of all those that own the righteousness of Christ being upon us as that wherein we stand justified have used to express the influence of Faith thereunto by that word Instrument So the Westminster Assembly do both in their Confession and in their Catechism Nor have I seen any thing alledged against expressing it by that word that amounts to any more but that the word is not strictly and precisely proper in the same sense wherein it is used in other cases which for my part I will easily grant But what then Ars posterior prioris utitur operâ Artes in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concrescunt We must of necessity and are warranted by the practise of the Holy Ghost to use Figures and Tropes in speaking of and declaring the Truths of God It is al 's readily granted that the word instrument is not found in Scripture used matter But yet for all that it may be a word of the Holy Ghosts Teaching for it is suited and apt to declare and let in into our Minds the true Notion and conception of what the Scripture declares to be the reference of Faith unto our Justification The Scripture saith it is by and through and of Faith yea it saith that God justifies us by Faith and through Faith I know no word that doth so well express the work and use of Faith in this matter which the Holy Ghost sets forth by receiving Joh. 1.11 12. Rom. 5.11 17. where we are said to receive Christ and to receive his Righteousness and the Atonement made thereby An expression that speaks both our having it or being possessed of it and the means or way on our part wherein it is effected or brought about viz. that it is by and in such a like acting of our Hearts towards Christ and his Righteousness as answers the work of the Hand in taking and receiving a corporeal thing offer'd to us and by our taking it made ours For my part as on the one hand I would not be needlesly tenacious of a word where we can as well retain and express the Truth without it so on the other hand I cannot but observe that all those even to a Man not one as far as I remember to be excepted who quarrel with that word instrument and wrangle to bring in the word condition in this business of our Justification and Christs Righteousness being upon us do labour under that Covert to bring in withal a very weighty and momentous alteration in the substance of the Doctrine of the Gospel For they would also bring in other things viz. Repentance and Love and new Obedience as Conditions of our Justification as well as Faith and as the Righteousness which is imputed to us and wherein we stand And they are generally for a conditional Redemption also and many of them for a conditional Election too 4. I shall therefore waving those dissatisfying words set before you what I conceive to be the Truth of God in this matter briefly in a few Propositions concerning the reference that Faith hath unto the Righteousness of Christ being upon us Onely premising two things First That I am speaking of possession or actual injoyment of this righteousness of Christ not of right or title to it Right and Possession are different things and therefore things of a different Nature and may be one without the other Rutherf of the Covenants p. 231 232. Faith hath no influence no not so much as in a way of instrumentality to confer upon us a right and title to Christs Righteousness all the influence that Faith hath in this matter is onely unto our actual Possession of it which the Holy Ghost calls our having it Phil. 3.9 and here in the Text its being upon us Secondly This Possession or having this Righteousness of Christ the reference of Faith whereunto I am speaking of is that having it which is unto Justification of Life and that as the next and immediate effect of this Righteousness being thus upon us It is having