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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	effect_n	faith_n	justify_v	6,955	5	8.9340	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96866	Justification by faith: or, a confutation of that antinomian error, that justification is before faith; being the sum & substance of a sermon / preached at Sarum; by Benjamin Woodbridge, minister of Newberry in Barkshire. May 26. 1652. Imprimatur, Edmund Calamy.	Woodbridge, Benjamin, 1622-1684.	1652 (1652)	Wing W3424; Thomason E673_18; ESTC R207183	23,288	41

or to any body else but because they are Arguments affected to prove that Reason must be where they are If Mr. Eyre will say that Faith doth evidence Justification after this maner then 1. Justification by Faith is not necessarily so much as a Justification in Conscience for as a childe may laugh and cry actions that will argue reason in the subject where they are and yet not have the evidence or clear knowledge that himself hath reason so may it be supposed that a Christian may have Faith which will argue Justification and yet not have the evidence that himself is justified We know by daily experience that many Christians have that in them which if it were rightly understood would prove that they are justified whiles yet they want the evidence of this Justification within themselves their consciences for long time together accusing and condemning them whiles there is ground and reason that they should excuse and absolve them 2. If Faith evidence Justification as an effect of it then may we as truly be Faithed by our Justification as to be justified by our Faith and we must invert the order of the Gospel and instead of saying Believe and thou shalt be justified we must say henceforward Thou art justified therefore believe 3. It will unavoidably follow that we are justified by Works as well as by Faith forasmuch as our Adversaries themselves I think will not deny that works are an effect of their supposed Justification as well as Faith I am sure Christ redeemed us that we should be Zealous of good Works Tit. 2. 14. And whether these works be the first effect or the second and by consequence the first evidence or the second is not at all material in this case because the Apostle when he denys Justification by Works he excludes Works altogether Ro. 3. 28. 4. 5. But I suppose this is not Mr. Eyre's meaning the word Evidence therefore may be taken more properly and so Faith may be said to evidence our Justification either Immediately and Axiomatically or Remotely and Syllogistically Faith doth evidence Exiomatically as it is an assent to the truth of a Divine Testimony concerning such or such a thing Thus the Apostle saith that Faith doth evidence to us That the world was framed by the word of God Heb. 11. 1 3. to wit as it is a firm assent to the Divine Testimony of Scripture That God made the Heavens and the Earth And thus Faith must be said to evidence Justification Axiomatically as it is an assent to this Proposition I am justified But thus Faith cannot evidence Justification For first There is no such thing written Ergo it cannot be evidenced by Faith immediately Where doth the Scripture say Thou Paul or thou Peter or thou Thomas art justified And where there is no Divine Testimony there can be neither Object nor Evidence of Divine Faith It is the carnal presumptuous damning Faith of the world to believe that they are justified by an Axiomatical assent though they do not come within the compass of any general Truth or Promise from which they may infer such a particular conclusion 2. The Faith by which we are justified is the Faith which the Apostles and Ministers of the Gospel are to preach to the whole world and to press upon their Consciences Acts 20. 21. and 13. 38 39. But we cannot press it upon every man in the world to believe that he is justified and that if he doth not believe this he shall be damned unless we should press men to believe a lie of all men Mr. Eyre cannot do it unless he would perswade men to believe himself to have Preached falshoods in all the Sermons which he hath formerly made against the avouchers of Universal Redemption Ergo Faith doth not evidence Justification Axiomatically Nor yet can it evidence our Justification Syllogistically Such a Syllogistical Evidence is the Evidence of a particular Conclusion drawn out of some general Proposition by the discourse of Conscience in which way a Believer doth evidence his justification by the discourse of his Conscience after this or the like maner He that believeth is justified But saith the Conscience I believe Therefore saith the same Conscience I am justified The two first Propositions of which Syllogism which they call the major and minor must first be evidenced before Faith can bring in the main Evidence which lays in the conclusion I affirm then That it is impossible for a man by Faith to evidence Syllogistically that he is justified before Faith because there cannot be found out a Medium before Faith it self that will agree with both parts of the Question and so there will be always wanting a major or minor and the conclusion in which lies the strength of the Evidence cannot follow For all particular Conclusions of personal Justification must be drawn out of some general Promise or Proposition which Faith doth first assent to and evidence before it can bring in the Conclusion which universal Proposition must contain that sort or kinde of persons of whom Justification may be affirmed But there is no sort or kinde of persons of whom Justification may be affirmed Universally but onely such as do believe which I prove thus All the world is distributed into Believers and Unbelievers Mark 16. 15 16. John 3. 17 18. But Justification cannot be affirmed of Unbelievers universally Would it not be accounted a mad evidencing of Justification by Faith to argue thus All Unbelievers are justified But I am an Unbeliever Ergo I am justified where the major is false confestly and the minor also must needs be false because he is supposed to be a Believer that makes the Syllogism and therefore the conclusion must run mad And if Faith can onely evidence that he that believes is justified then can it not evidence any Justification before Believing Peradventure it may be said which onely can be said That Faith may evidence Justification Syllogistically thus All the elect are justified But saith a Believers Conscience I am elect Ergo saith the same Conscience I am justified To which I might answer That the major is utterly false but because that is the Question I meddle not with it To the minor I answer by denying it Because we speak not now of what is true in it self in which sense I acknowledge it to be true that he that believes is elected but of what is truly evidenced by Faith and Faith cannot truly evidence Election before it hath evidenced Justification For I renew the same Argument thus Faith doth evidence Election Axiomatically or Syllogistically not Axiomatically for the Scriptures no where speak to particular persons Thou Peter or Thomas c. art Elected If Syllogistically then either by something before Election or by the consequences and effects of it Before Election there is nothing to evidence it by and if Faith must evidence it by its effects then it evidenceth Justification before Election because Justification is one of

JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH OR A CONFUTATION Of that ANTINOMIAN ERROR That Justification is before Faith BEING The SUM SUBSTANCE Of a SERMON Preached at SARUM By Benjamin Woodbridge Minister of Newberry in BARKSHIRE May 26. 1652. Imprimatur Edmund Calamy GAL. 3. 16. We have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the Faith of Christ London Printed by John Field for Edmund Paxton and are to be sold at his Shop in Pauls-Chain over against the Castle-Tavern near to the Doctors Commons 1652. Christian Reader THe Doctrine of the Gospel concerning the Justification of a believing Sinner because it exceedingly illustrates the glorious riches of Gods free Grace and magnifies his Justice because it is the onely support of comfort to a wounded conscience and takes away from man the cause of boastings and is so much above the invention and credulity of reason is most plainly delivered and often inculcated by the holy Ghost in Scripture in that we learn all the causes of Justification The efficient Rom. 3. 24 25. 26. God The inwardly movings his rich mercy great love The meritorious Jesus Christ The material the obedience of Christ The formal the imputation of Righteousness without Works The instrumental by which it is received Faith The final the glory of the grace of God and the salvation of the believing sinner This Doctrine hath in all ages been opposed obscured sometimes by manifest enemies and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 professedly sometimes by professed friends and such as would be accounted the great pleaders for free Grace What errors Papists Socinians Arminians erre in this weighty Doctrine I relate not This short and learned discourse which thou art presented with deals not with these but with Antinomian Error It is a true observation of godly Mr. Shepheard Mark Sound believer p. 96. those men that deny the use of the Law to lead unto Christ if they do not fall in time to oppose some main point of the Gospel For it is a righteous thing but a heavy plague for the Lord to suffer such men to obscure the Gospel that in their judgements zealously dislike the use of the Law This thing these men have done asserting That all the elect before their Conversion and Faith stand actually reconciled to God and justified before him A strange Assertion as reverend Dr. Downam rightly terms it to be uttered by a godly man Covenant of Grace p. 292. This is the Opinion in this Treatise confuted and proved contradictory to Scripture fit onely 1. To sew pillows under the elbows of prophane men 2. To overthrow the comfort of Believers destroying the ground nature use and end of Faith Curcellaeus judges the differences amongst Christians Prefat in op Episcopij in this Point of Justification of so small concernment as that they ought not to breed a controversie But Reader When the glory of God and comfort of thy soul lies at stake as in these matters do not thou think either that men wrangle about a Goats wool or that the matter doth not concern thee Thou art beholding to the learned Author for the penning of this Tract but for the publishing of it to another into whose hands it came That thou mayest read it and weigh it without prejudice and profit by it is the Prayer of James Cranford Justification by Faith Worthy Sir ACcording to your desire and my own promise I here send you the Copy of the Sermon which I Preached lately at Salisbury against the Opinion so much prevailing amongst you of Justification before Faith I have made several additions to several Arguments and annexed a large Answer to the two Arguments which Mr. Eyre made use of against me after the Sermon was ended The Introduction to the Text and the Applicatory part of the Sermon I shall not trouble you with but onely with that which is Doctrinal and Controversal HAving then read those words in Rom. 5. 1. The Point observed was this That we are justified by Faith To write down all the places that give evidence to this truth were to Transcribe almost the whole New Testament Gal. 2. 16. We have believed in Jesus Christ that we may be justified by the Faith of Christ where Justification is expresly made a consequent of Faith And as Glory follows Justification so doth Justification follow Vocation unto Faith Rom. 8. 30. and Righteousness saith the Apostle shall be imputed unto us if we believe Rom. 4. 24. so Acts 10. 43. and 13. 39. and 26. 18. with multitudes of other places The onely Answer which is given to these and the like Texts is this That by Justification we are to understand a Justification in the Court of Conscience or the Evidence and Declaration of a Justification already past before God so that Faith is said to justifie us not because it doth justifie us before God but because it doth declare to our Consciences that we are justified Against which Gloss I have several things to oppose 1. That it is a contradiction of the Holy Ghost It is well known that the Apostle in the Epistle to the Romans and to the Galatians sets himself on purpose to assert the Doctrine of Justification by Faith in opposition to Works The question between him and the Jews was not Whether we were declared to be justified by Faith or Works but Whether we were justified by Faith or Works in the sight of God or before God and he concludes that it is by Faith and not by Works Thus Rom. 3. 20 21. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested c. The righteousness of God without the Law is the righteousness of Faith and by this we are Justified in the sight of God and not by the deeds of the Law Again Gal. 3. 11. But that no man is justified by the Law in the sight of God it is evident For the just shall live by Faith where the Argument is clearly this If we are justified by Faith in the sight of God then we are not justified by Works in the sight of God But we are justified by Faith in the sight of God For the Just shall live by Faith Ergo not by Works From which places we may safely infer that where else the Apostle speaks of Justification by Faith in opposition to Justification by Works he is to be understood of Justification before God or in the sight of God and not onely of Justification in our own Consciences 2. It is also a most unsound assertion that Faith doth Evidence our Justification before Faith The word Evidence may be taken improperly as signifying no more then an Argument and so Faith may be said to Evidence Justification as an effect doth argue the cause As laughing and crying may be said to evidence reason in a childe not that it is necessary they should evidence it to the childe it self

everlasting flames 3. The condemnation with which the unbeliever is condemned is expressed verse 36. by the abiding of the wrath of God upon him 4. It is also opposed unto salvation verse 17. God sent not his Son to condemn the world but to save it and surely the condemnation which is opposed to Salvation is more then the condemnation of a mans own conscience for that may very well consist with Salvation yea they that are saved are for the most part more subject to it in this life then they that perish 3. A third Argument is drawn from the several comparisons by which justification by Faith is illustrated Sometimes 't is compared to the Israelites looking up to the Brazen Serpent for healing Joh. 3. 14. Num. 21. 8 9. As then they were not first healed and then looked up to see what healed them but they did first look upon the Serpent and then they were healed Even so is it the will of God That whosoever seeth and believeth the Son shall be justified John 6. 40. He is not first justified and then seeth the Son sometimes Faith is compared to eating and Justification to the nourishment which we receive by our meat John 6. 51 52 53 54. We are not first nourished and then eat the meat that nourisheth us but we eat our meat that we may be nourished by it In like maner we are not first justified and then believe on Christ that hath justified us but we believe in Christ that we may be justified 4. A fourth Argument is drawn from the perpetual opposition between Faith and Works from whence the Argument is this What place and order Works had to justification in the Covenant of Works the same place and order Faith hath to our justification in the Covenant of Grace But Works were to go before our Justification in the Covenant of Works Ergo Faith is to go before our Justification in the Covenant of Grace To the minor I say nothing because there is not a man in the world that doth deny it as I know of and that being granted the major also must be out of question If the tenor of the first Covenant Do this and live by the consent of all People and Nations Jews and Gentiles will undeniably evince that Works were necessary Antecedents of justification in that Covenant why then should not Believe in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved which is the tenor of the New Covenant Rom. 10. 6 9. plead as strongly for the like necessity of the Antecedency of Faith to justification in this Covenant 2. Faith and Works have the like order to justification in their respective Covenants or else justification by Faith and justification by Works are not opposed for Opposita sunt circa idem The Jews looked after Righteousness by the works of the Law The Apostle tells them they must seek it by Faith Now if they say we must be justified by Works to wit formally and before God and the Apostle say Nay but we must be justified by Faith to wit declaratively and before Conscience then the establishing of justification by Faith will not destroy justification by Works and so there will be nothing but falshoods and equivocations in all the Apostles Disputations against Justification by Works And how easily might the Jews and the Apostle have been reconciled They say We must be justified by Works and he says We must be justified by Faith it is but distinguishing Works do justifie us before God but Faith must evidence and declare this to us and they are agreed 5. Adde further what the Apostle says 1 Cor. 6. 11. Such were some of you but you are washed but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Where the opposition between the time past and the time present doth evidently argue that the words have this sense Such and such you were in time past Fornicators Idolaters c. and therefore must have been shut out of the Kingdom of God verse 10. But Now you are washed Now and not before you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus that is through Faith in his name compare Acts 3. 16. and 10. 43. If then the Corinthians were not justified before Faith Why are Englishmen It is to no purpose to say here That now they were declared in their own Consciences to be justified and so they were not before whiles they lived in those abominable sins For 1. Why may not we understand the word Sanctified in the same sense seeing we are said to be sanctified by Faith Acts 26. 18. and 15. 9. 1 Pet. 1. 22. as well as justified by Faith And so suppose that these Corinthians had a seed of Grace before but buried under the dirt and rubbish of vile sins till by Faith they came to see that they were sanctified There is nothing can be alledged for Justification before believing which will not hold as strongly for Sanctification before believing nor any reason why Sanctification should not be understood for a Sanctification declared as well as Justification for a Justification declared 2. The Justification which they now had was that which gave them right and title to the Kingdom of God which right and title they had not before no more then others that did yet continue in Idolatry Fornication Uncleanness and the other sins specified It is acknowledged of all hands that Justification includes an adjudging of us unto life or a giving us a right to the Heavenly Kingdom if then these Corinthians had this right before they believed then did their Faith give them no more security of Salvation in point of right then they had before or then might be affirmed of them who did yet abide in their sins and by consequence if they had lived and dyed in their sins they might have gone to Heaven notwithstanding though for want of Faith to see this their right they could not have departed with so much comfort of Spirit For if faith do onely declare that we have a Title to the Heavenly Kingdom then it makes no relative change in our condition from a state of death into a state of life and so whether we believe or no all is one as to the certainty of our Salvation though we want the evidence and perswasion of it If it be here said that all whom God in his secret justification hath adjudged unto life shall have the evidence thereof by Faith I Answer This evidence is of such necessity as that if they have it not they shall lose that life to which they are adjudged or no If not then whether they believe or do not believe they shall be saved If it be then is there no absolute justification before Faith and justification must be conditional and the immediate and absolute right to life must be acknowledged to be a consequent of Faith which will at once overthrow Mr. Eyres Opinion and confirm this Argument without any more ado What remains to be done is to