many for fear on one hand least they live short of that universal unreserved Obedience which is the most general Mark given of Sincerity and on the other hand when they have come to be satisfied a little as to that least they split on the Book of trusting to themselves or resting in Duty instead of the Righteousness of Christ received by Faith only All things that are comprized any way in following after Righteousness such as are all our Duties and Works are excluded from any Influence in our Justification says the Doctor p. 490. And in p. 493 he says When the Apostle James affirms that a Man is justified by Works and not by Faith only he cannot intend our Justification before God where it is impossible they should both concur I have no doubt but St. James and St. Paul both understood by the Justification they speak of our Justification before God I have proved it Mid. Way of Just p. 51 52. The Justification of Abraham before and at his Offering his Son argues nothing but that Justification is a continued Act as a Pardon at Law and seeing his Faith and Works had Influence in it against the Doctor I conceive that Faith and Works may be made to concur in Justification more kindly than Justification and Sanctification can in their Preaching of the Gospel The most of the Objections the Doctor tells us that are raised against his Doctrine do arise he says for want of a due Comprehension of the Order of the Work of Grace and our Compliance therewithal in a Way of Duty I must say the same of him and as to all that is raised by any against the Doctrine of the Righteousness of God which I am endeavouring to establish against that which is the Doctor 's and the common Protestants Own instead of Paul's Revealed in the Gospel The Gospel calls for Repentance out of Question as well as Faith and the Doctor and others could never exclude all Works from Justification against St. James but for want of a due Comprehending the Way and Method of becoming Righteous which God of his Grace and abundant Mercy when we were lost and liable to Damnation through the need of an irrecoverable Innocency hath instituted through Christ's Redemption and the Evangelick Condition accepted by him instead of the Righteousness of Works from whence we are fallen This is the Righteousness of God in a short Explanation * Well! Let us consult what is that Righteousness of God St. Paul speaks of Rom. 1.17 Rom. 3.21 22 26. Rom. 10.3 2 Cor. 5.21 Phil. 3.9 which he calls so God's Righteousness the Righteousness of Faith that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith in opposition to Works in the Point of Justification Is it the Righteousness of Christ who is God I am perswaded this is a First Thought so shallow that it must be short What then indeed is it This Righteousness of God is that Way and Method of becoming Righteous which is of God's Institution as Another hath expressed it That is not the Righteousness of Christ but that Righteousness through Christ which is Ordained of God and promulgated in the Gospel to be accepted I say through him unto Justification and Salvation But what Way and Method is that When God made Man we must conceive he had in his Prospect what to do with him and that was to glorifie himself in Saving him There was two Ways to do this Either by the Way of Works or Grace Man was Created with an Original Righteousness and what was Original must be Natural and if he had stood he must according to Nature have been Righteous and all his Posterity and the Reward then as it is reckon'd by the Apostle would have been of Debt or Merit and not of Grace God hereby should have glorified his Justice and Goodness in Saving Man but he should have shewn no Mercy nor Man have any need of it No nor any need of a Saviour or Redemption or the Holy Spirit 's Operation That is of that Grace which is Medicinal or Habitual Grace for I say if he had an Original Righteousness he had no need of the Infusion of a New to heal Original Corruption He would have been saved by Works proceeding from Nature Ex Regula viribus Naturae and not from Grace or the Spirit and have needed none of that Grace neither which is Favour but only God's Justice to have dealt with him according to that Law of Innocency which he had performed God therefore did not choose this Way that Man should be saved by a Righteousness of his own according to Nature but by Way of Grace and Works proceeding from Grace or the Holy Spirit and not of himself and that is by a Righteousness which is of God by Faith For by Grace are ye saved through Faith and not of your selves least any Man should boast That is not a Righteousness of your effecting but of God's own Contrivance who hath chosen this way rather than that of Works that none may ascribe that to themselves which is due only to God Not by Works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his Mercy he saved us by the washing of Water and renewing of the Holy Ghost Note here is the Righteousness we have done and the Renewing of the Holy Ghost so opposed as that we are saved by that Righteousness which is of God and of God's Spirit and not by that which is our Own How is that Why They being ignorant of God's Righteousness and going about to establish their own have not submitted to that which should have saved them The Performance of the Law of Moses was the Jews Righteousness for God says This shall be your Righteousness and the Performance of the Law of Nature or Covenant of Works is all Mankind's Righteousness and when neither Jew could perform the One nor any Mortal the Other there are none can be saved by the Righteousness of their Own but it must be by Another Righteousness called by the Apostle the Righteousness of God But now the Righteousness of God without the Law is manifest being witnessed by the Law and Prophets even the Righteousness of God which is by the Faith of Jesus Christ. Here is a Righteousness that was ever on foot in the World or none else could have been saved but now revealed by the Gospel which is the Righteousness that save us in opposition to the Righteousness of the Law or of Works even the Righteousness of Faith that is a Righteousness according to the Law or Covenant of Grace which Christ hath procured by his Blood Hence do we read it is said of Christ in Daniel that as he should make Reconciliation for Iniquity so he should bring in an Everlasting Righteousness that is by his Death he should procure a Covenant or Law of Grace by our Performance whereof without the Law we are righteous and must be justified and saved
THE Righteousness of God Revealed in the GOSPEL OR An IMPARTIAL ENQUIRY into the Genuine Doctrine of St. PAVL In the Great but much Controverted ARTICLE of JUSTIFICATION By Mr. JOHN HUMFREY Of making Books there is no End and much Study is a Weariness to the Flesh Let us hear the Conclusion of the Matter Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole of Man Ec. 12.13 14. LONDON Printed for T. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside 1697. TO THE READER HAVING seriously read this Treatise concerning the Justification of a Sinner I sound so clear and distinct an Account given of it that as it gave me no small Satisfaction so I could not but think it worthy to be perused by others For though the Learned Author departs in some things from the common Opinion yet he doth it so modestly that candid Persons though contrary minded will not blame him for it And his Reasons are such that it is possible they may be convinced by them and perswaded to embrace his Explication of this weighty Doctrine However his Drift and Intention is so evidently Holy viz. to prevent Mens falling into the most dangerous Errors that he may hope for their Pardon who think him not to be altogether in the Right himself For as to the main Business no Man more strenuously asserts the Doctrine of our Church of Justification by Faith only accorto the Explication which is made of it in our Homilies in the Second Part of the Sermon of Salvation in these Words This Saying That we be justified by Faith only freely and without Works is spoken for to take away clearly all Merit of our Works as being unable to deserve our Justification at God's Hands And thereby most plainly to express the Weakness of Man and the Goodness of God the great Infirmity of our selves and the Might and Power of God the Imperfectness of our own Works and the most abundant Grace of our Saviour Christ and therefore wholy to ascribe the Merit and deserving of our Justification unto Christ only and his most pretious Blood-shedding But although this Doctrine be never so true as it there follows that we be justified freely without all Merit of our own Good Works as St. Paul doth express it and freely by this lively and perfect Faith in Christ only as the ancient Authors use to speak it yet this true Doctrine must be also truly understood and most plainly declared lest carnal Men should take unjustly occasion thereby to live carnally after the appetite and will of the World the Flesh and the Devil Now this being the very Scope of this Author to declare the right Vnderstanding of this Doctrine so plainly that no Man may thereby take any Occasion of Carnal Liberty he hopes his Endeavour will be acceptable to all those that love the Lord Jesus in Sincerity Amen Nov. 24. 1696. SY ELIENS Worcester Apr. 7. 1697. SIR THE Papers you were pleased to send me I have carefully perused and I am not without Hopes that through the Blessing of God they may allay those unreasonable Heats which have made so great a Noise about the Point of Justification and yet we are told that they all agree in the Doctrine of Christ's Satisfaction and the Covenant of Grace as founded upon it But we find by too common Experience that it is possible for Men upon their own Mistakes to grow as warm in this Matter as if they were disputing with the Jews as St. Paul did in his Epistle to the Romans But if such Persons would lay aside Prejudices and Impartially consider the State of the Case at that Time they would far better understand this Controversy and not think so hardly of their Brethren For nothing can be plainer to me than that St. Paul opposes that which he calls The Righteousness of God by Faith Rom. 1.17.3.21.10.3 to their own Righteousness which was by the Law And which made the Reward not of Grace but of Debt And Faith is taken by him as a Term opposite to the Law and importing the Grace of the Gospel Therefore it is of Faith that it might be of Grace Phil. 3.5 So that Justification by Faith is in other Words being justified by the Grace of the Gospel Rom. 3.27 28.4.15 manifested by the Doctrine of Christ and procured by his Sufferings which are granted both by them and us to be the only meritorious Cause of our Justification The remaining Dispute then can only be concerning those Terms on which we may be made Partakers of this Grace of the Gospel which is communicated to Mankind as the Effect of Christ's Satisfaction Which is very different from that which St. Paul managed against all such as set up their own Works whether according to the Law of Nature or of Moses against the Gospel of Christ and thought there was no necessity of any such Propitiation by Christ as St. Paul asserted in order to the Remission of Sins and the Favour of God For the Jews believed that the Righteousness of the Law as it was performed by them was sufficient in order to their Acceptance with God and that there was such a Proportion between their Works and the Favour of God as made it a Debt of Justice Which Opinion remains among them to this Day as appears by this Saying of Manasseh Ben-Israel Hinc meritis Gratiam Dei acquiri non est Dubitandam By which it seems that the Jews have not alter'd their Opinions since the Apostles Days but all that understand Christianity aright do agree that there is no other meritorious Cause of our Acceptance with God but the Propitiation which Christ hath made Colos 1.14 In whom we have Redemption through his Blood even the Forgiveness of Sins Titus 3.5 6. And not by Works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his Mercy he saved us that being justified by his Grace we should be made Heirs according to the Hope of Eternal Life But here comes the material Question to be resolved How we come to receive the Benefits of Christs Sufferings To answer this Distinctly we must consider them Two Ways 1. As they respect Mankind or those in General for whom Christ died 2. As they belong to Particular Persons The former are those Benefits which result from God's Acceptance of Christ's Sacrifice on behalf of Mankind which the Apostle calls God's being in Christ 2 〈◊〉 5.19 reconciling the World to himself not imputing their Trespasses unto them If this be meant of actual Pardon then all the Sins of the World are not imputed upon Christ's Death without any Act on their Parts and so the Ministry of Reconciliation would be to no purpose which the Apostle immediately adds was committed to them To what End if the Sins of the World were already forgiven But the Apostle saith v. 20. That it was to perswade Men to be reconciled to God i. e. to believe and repent and
which is rather the Consequence of this Acceptance with God Rom. 3.28 Therefore we conclude that a Man is justified by Faith without the Deeds of the Law i. e. A man is received into the Favour of God not by his own Works but according to the Grace of the Gospel and the Terms contained therein And this I take to be St. Paul's meaning 3. The Righteousness of Christ may be said to be imputed two ways 1. So as it becomes our Personal Righteousness which is called Formal Imputation 2. So as the Benefit of Christ's Righteousness and Satisfaction redounds to our Advantage If the former Sense be allowed these Consequences follow 1. That we must be as Righteous as Christ was for if Personal Righteousness can be transferred the Person on whom it is transferred must have that very Righteousness which was in Christ himself and so must be as Holy and Innocent as he was which I hardly think any will pretend to 2. That there can be no Remission of Sin as to such who have this perfect Righteousness no more than there could be to Christ himself Imputation for Remission of Sin and of Personal Righteousness are inconsistent For the one must suppose Guilt and the other cannot when the Personal Righteousness is actually imputed There may be antecedent Guilt before the Imputation but where there is perfect Righteousness actually imputed there can be no personal Guilt for if there be it can be no perfect Righteousness as to him 3. That there can be no Conditions required where a perfect Righteousness is imputed For a Condition is in order to something to be obtained but here the full Benefit is already received by the Imputation of a perfect Righteousness and it is absurd to suppose Conditions for the obtaining of what is past It cannot then be denied that those speak consonantly enough to this Hypothesis who exclude all Conditions from the new Covenant but very dangerously as to the Design of Charity since our Saviour himself bids us to pray to God to forgive our Trespasses as we forgive others which I think supposes a Condition on our Parts in order to Remission But if no more be meant by Imputation of Christ's Righteousness but that the Sufferings of Christ were in our stead and for our Advantage as to Remission and Justification I do most heartily and freely own it 4. The Apostles Argument against Merit and Boasting do by no means hold against such an Evangelical Righteousness as comes from the Grace of God and tends wholly to the Honour of it which is so clear that I need not to prove it This is a short Account of my Thoughts in this Matter and I think we do not differ in the Substance however we may in the manner of Explication I am Your Friend and Servant ED. WIGORN Mr. Humfrey Chester Apr. 12. 1997. I Receiv'd by Piece-meal as it came from the Press all your Book entituled Of the Righteousness of God in the Matter of Justification except the Title Page and the Epistle which I read over as it came to my Hands with Pleasure and Profit The great Doctrine of Justification is by you stated more agreeably to the Scriptures than I have met with it in any other Author You do I confess in some Places express your Sense obscurely so that it may perhaps be mistaken by unwary Readers but if in those Places I rightly apprehend your Meaning I do not at present remember any thing I have to object against it However I intend the next Week to read over the whole together and if any Objections shall then occur to my Thoughts you shall hear further from me It will I doubt not be a good Antidote against the Antinomian Doctrines which some Persons who decry do implicitly and by necessary Consequence assert by the false Notion they have entertain'd of Christ's imputed Righteousness I am SIR Your Affectionate Brother N. CESTRIENS An ADVERTISEMENT from the Author READER TO make a stay to camulate more Testimony to this Book though of the like Right Reverend Persons to no other end but to signify their Consent or Approbation of it might give thee Occasion to censure me for a seeker of vain Glory which does little become such a one as I rather than thy Edification I will use this spare Leafe therefore to another Purpose When I reprinted my Middle way of Justification which I printed at first about 25 Years ago I thought of writing no more on that Point But afer a while there being something I conceived needful for Finishing my Work I took occasion from the Difference among our United Brethren in a single Sheet called my One Sheet to draw up a Conclusion of the whole Matter so thorowly as I could to my own Mind intending it for my last that I cannot think fit this Book being now later and like to be canvased more than the other should come abroad without it as the Substance of this as well as that Book before and that I have wrote between or any else I can write on this Subject Having therefore this little room to fill I cannot consult my Own Content and Thy Profit better than to do it with this Citation from thence as follows To understand aright St. Paul's Justification by Faith we must consider with whom it is he contends The Jews as the best skill'd in Rabbinical Learning does tell us did generally maintain the Doctrine of Freewill not doubting but every one could do as God commanded if he would himself * This is the meaning of that Jewish saying All things are in the Power and disposal of Heaven except the Fear of God for that they believed was in their own they having no Notion as Pelagius at first of Grace All that God hath spoken we will do And having receiv'd the Law from God's Mouth the Excellency whereof was their Glory they supposed in the observation of the Outside that they kept it accounting the Reward promised therein due to them thereupon from God as what in Justice they merited for their Deeds Insomuch that some thought themselves so righteous as not to sin at all or need Pardon Touching the Law blameless All these have I kept from my youth up and others that sinned being lick'd whole by Sacrifice they thought all well boasting themselves as the Only People the Only Righteous in the Earth Not to mention what we all know out of the Acts that some of them were Converts to Christianity did yet remain of the Opinion that their Law was to be kept The Apostle now sets himself against †Not that this great I 〈◊〉 was for 〈◊〉 of the Jewâ— that is a 〈◊〉 and unâ—â—…thy 〈…〉 the Life and â—â—â—â—…tion of Man 〈…〉 that Justification by Faith in Opposition to the Law must not be understood as to that of Moses only but to the whole Law of Works these Jews and lets them know that no Man neither Jew nor Gentile is righteous
should be accounted righteous in another's Righteousness and to be that thing Per quod we are justified There is no such Matter in reality but in notion only When one Man is justified and not another something there must be in the one that is not in the other This Righteousness now whatsoever it be as imperfect as it is confessedly yet wrought by the Spirit of God is that and must be that which is the Form per quam he is accepted or justified when the Satisfaction and the Righteousness of Christ we all at least Protestants do grant to be the Ground or Reason of that Acceptation that is the Meritorious Cause propter quam we are pardoned and saved It is not therefore the Papists infused perfect Righteousness for there is no such nor the Protestants imputed Righteousness for that is not ours both of which answer the Law if we could plead them and would make the Reward of Debt But it is a Third Thing The Righteousness of God without the Law as the Apostle calls it a Righteousness now revealed in the Gospel in opposition to Works that is meritorious perfect Works which we have and must have and yet answer not the Law but makes our Justification therefore of Mercy or Grace which is the Righteousness as yet quite out of sight of the most we must advance Paulo Duce in the Doctrine of Justification In one Verse of David's Psalms we have him praying thus Hear my Prayer O Lord answer me in thy Righteousness Where we see a Righteousness of God according to which he is accepted And yet in the next Verse do these Words follow And enter not into Judgment with thy Servant for in thy sight shall no Man living be justified Where we see a Righteousness according to which no Man can be heard no Man can be accepted no Man can stand in his sight Psal 143.1 2. Thus much then is plain that here is a Righteousness and a Righteousness A Righteousness I may say of strict Justice or a Righteousness of gracious Acceptation A Righteousness which is Severe Justice or Paternal Justice The Righteousness of a condescending Father or of a rigid Judge David does as it were appeal from the one to the other Any one may express themselves in other Terms as please them best But such a Distinction then is to be made in reality according to the Scriptures I will therefore offer yet these other words There is a Righteousness as to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Righteousness to be most plain and full according to the Law or Covenant of Works whereby God might deal with us if he would and so no Man could Live Or a Righteousness according to the Covenant of Grace which is this Righteousness the Apostle means now revealed as that by which he does deal with us in the Gospel God is not unrighteous says one Apostle to forget your Labour of Love Heb. 11.10 If we confess our Sins he is faithful and just says another to forgive us our Sins and to cleanse us from our Unrighteousness 1 Joh. 1.9 It is a righteous thing with God to render to you rest when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed 2 Thes 1.7 I have fought a good Fight and kept the Faith henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the righteous Judge shall give me and all that love his appearing 2 Tim. 4.8 He shall pray unto God and he will be favourable to him for he will render to Man his Righteousness Job 33.26 Judge me Lord according to my Righteousness and according to my Integrity Psal 7.8 The Lord rewarded me according to my Righteousness for I have kept the ways of the Lord Psal 18.20 21. Remember me 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 Isa 38.3 Remember me O God concerning this and wipe not out my good Deeds I have done for the House of my God and the Offices thereof Neh. 13.14 Remember me O God for good ch ult v. ult By these and the like places the Righteousness of God this Righteousness the Apostle speaks of may be taken Subjective or Terminative in regard to himself or in regard to us Or to wave School-Terms and speak surer on His part or on Our part On God's part this Righteousness is his Grace or Condescention towards us in pardoning the Failings and accepting the Endeavours of all penitent believing Men and Women so long as they be sincere notwithstanding those Failings unto Life according to the New Covenant And on Our part it is these Endeavours thus accepted or that which we do our believing or repenting how frail soever if sincere being the Condition required of us in that Covenant to our Justification and Salvation Now the Righteousness of God without the Law without the performance thereof is manifest says the Apostle It was always in the World but occult as Austine I have said in my first Sheets does speak 'till the Preaching of the Gospel How is that Why in regard to the Foundation I count on which it stands For other Foundation can no Man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 3.11 This Righteousness of God which is I say on God's part his Grace or Condescention toward us in passing by our Failings and accepting our sincere Endeavour unto Life notwithstanding all our Imperfections is procured for and vouchsafed to us upon the Account of Christ's Satisfaction and Righteousness the meritorious Cause of the Acceptance and Salvation of all that were saved under the Old Testament as well as of us now but that this Grace stood and was vouchsafed then upon this Account upon Christ's Account was dark to them and they saw it not as we now do and therefore is this Righteousness of God said to be revealed now tho' always afoot so as they had the benefit then or else none before now could have been saved I am not ashamed of the Gospel for therein the Apostle goes on is the Righteousness of God revealed from Faith to Faith From Faith to Faith And what means that Why this is the meaning * There is one Religion Law or Rule for all Mankind to obtain Life by which being the Law of our Lapsed Nature or Remedying Law containing God's Grace administred to all the Earth in a Threefold State of such as were or are without the Law or before it and under the Law and under the Gospel As this Administration is Threefold so hath the Faith which is the Condition thereof been diversified But now is the Righteousness of God revealed from Faith to Faith The Righteousness of God is the Righteousness of this Law which hath ever been afoot in the World and tho' a Heathen hath not that Faith as is required of the Christian in the Third Edition of it or that which was required of the
as the full Tale be brought in or no Righteousness of Christ imputed no Merits of Christ otherwise to be applied Whereas if the End of Christ's doing and suffering what he did in our behalf was that what we do our selves by his Spirits preventing and assisting Grace shall be imputed to us for Righteousness which is the very Truth seeing the Scripture says it that it is our Faith to wit a sound Faith working by Love is and shall be so imputed that is our Faith Repentance New Obedience is accepted in regard to the Reward instead of that Righteousness the Law required to our Justification then we see what Line we have given us for the actuating our Faith and reliance on God's Grace Goodness Mercy and Christ's Merits for Pardoning our Failings as I am saying and taking what is done in such good part as to reward it with Life seeing it is for Christ's sake altogether for his Merits sake only not for its value that it finds acceptation which is the greatest Encouragement to our Endeavours and consequently to a Holy Life that can be in the World I will add that God our Judge who is gracious and wise does consider the diverse Natures Tempers Natural Infirmities Temptations of Men and Women and hath his Grains of Allowance for all according to these Circumstances so as that shall be accepted for the Condition performed in one that falls exceeding short of what is done by another Alas there are such diverse Sizes of God's Children so vast a disproportion I mean as to the Degrees of their Grace that one would hardly think them the Children of the same Father What a Difference is there between a Seth and a Sampson Rahab and Elizabeth Who would think that one Heaven should hold them both He knoweth our Frame and remembreth we are but Dust Upon which Account we read so often of his Compassions toward the Weak and Fainting which gives us this Ground for our trust in him to bear with our Frailty in mollifying to some the Condition Not but all must be Sincere but that this Sincerity is of diverse Degrees in the Sence I speak in regard to God's Acceptance and Grace which hath no Bounds to be set by any And now if any pious Brother shall go to take away this Doctrine from us and the Fruit of it I will wish him to take heed to his own and consider whither it leads If Christ hath died for the Sinner so that God looks on the Sinner to have satisfied the Law in Christ then should he preach this Gospel He should declare to all and every of his Hearers that God is in Christ reconciled to him and that he is to believe it's Christ hath died for Sinners thou art a Sinner All are Sinners Christ hath died for all and thou art to believe thy Sins forgiven Thou art not to believe only that there is Forgiveness of Sins and Everlasting Life but that these Articles through Christ are thy Possession Who loved Me and gave himself for Me. In Christ's Obedience and Sâ—fferings thou hast obeyed the Law and satisfied the Penalty and therefore art justified and in a State of Salvation As for Good Works they are indeed to be done out of Gratitude afterward God commands them and they please him and they do good to Men and therefore thou must do them but nothing is to be done for thy self but believe only in order to thy Justification and Salvation Let a Man but believe once in good earnest that it is so he cannot choose but love God and Jesus Christ and that Love will constrain him to Obedience If you hold the Doctrine of Election he must not stick at that but he must believe also he is Elect and indeed that none but the Elect can believe that is thus believe Or that there can be this Fiducia specialis misericordiae in none ever but the Elect only and therefore is it called The Faith of God's Elect. And what says any of my sober Brethren to this Doctrine Can he find in his Heart to preach it when Christ when John when Peter Acts 2.38 when they began to preach did preach Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand I confess that Luther as I apprehend did at first preach at this rate which was the way to fetch in so many by the Shoals as he did from Popery when the World was groaning under the Burden of their Priests Impositions their Penances Satisfactions Fastings Scourgings praying to Saints worshipping Images Pilgrimages Indulgences besides the Vows of Chastity Poverty and Monastical Obedience as to the more Religious whereby they were made to believe they merited Salvation for themselves and others It was glad Tydings now and a welcome Gospel to the World at this time to tell them that it is Faith alone in opposition to these Works that justifies and saves Men. Nevertheless when that excellent Man saw the Effect of his own Doctrine that such as he had turned from Popery began to run as fast to Antinomianism and Libertinism he saw occasion to change his Preaching to press the Law and Repentance as much as others Nor was the Doctrine of Preparatory Works Man's lying at the Pool Refused but Sated and Approved by his Followers A Convinced Sinner is the only Subjectum capax Justificationis even with Dr. Owen Of Just p. 133. The Second PART I Know that several of our chiefest Divines have been so far from imbibing the Sence of this Righteousness which is my Theme The Righteousness of God revealed in the Gospel that their Doctrine in opposition to the Papists is extream in the thwarting without being truly aware of it When those Prudential Catholicks who understand that Qualitas Gratiae infusa non Natura sua sed ex Dei acceptatione ordinatione habet ut Hominem Deo gratum reddat are to be heard rather than them Nay the deep and acute Mr. Baxter so far as I remember any thing he has never came to lay this Righteousness of God enough to his Thoughts when nothing almost else escapes him as it appears by his frequent approbation or mention of the Learned Sober Logically Judicious Mr. Anthony Wotton and sometimes Mr. Hotchkis his Follower I will examine therefore a little into Mr. Wotton's Opinion Justification by him is thus defined It is Reconciliationis pars qua Deus in Christum credentibus fidem reputans ad justitiam omnia illis peccata condonat Reconciliation is God's Return into Grace and Favour with Sinners as he says whom Sin had made his Enemies through Satisfaction given him by Christ God is said to be angry with Sin and Sinners and upon Christ's Satisfaction and their Repentance to be appeased or reconciled Not that Man's Repentance or Christ's Satisfaction works any change in God but Ex Connotatione Objecti God is denominated Man's Repentance changes himself and Christ's Satisfaction makes a change in the Order of Things but God is unchangeable while yet the
Righteousness inherent that justifies us in opposition to both There is a Righteousness of God I say that is neither of these unknown to the Disputants on both sides that is the Formal Righteousness for which they strive St. Austin I remember does often tell us that by this Righteousness of God we must not understand that whereby himself is righteous but that whereby we are so As the Love of God is taken sometimes not for that whereby he loves us but that whereby we love him Justitia Dei non qua justus est sed qua justos nos facit I cannot forget these words because I find them used by the Council of Trent in their defining Justification Austin believed a Righteousness infused a Righteousness that makes a Man Ex impio justum and to be that which justifies him He believed not this Righteousness to be Remission of Sins because he still speaks of it as Grace inherent and sometimes calls it Charity But he seemed not to speak of it as any such perfect Righteousness that a Man may bring to the Bar to justifie him seeing you will ever and anon have such sensible Expressions that the best of Righteousness that Man has does consist rather in God's being merciful to his Unrighteousness than in the Perfection of his Vertues The truth is I found not in Reading Austine that he did fully understand himself or made me to understand what this Righteousness of God does mean when the Apostle speaks of something Mysterious in it he counts but now Revealed That there should be a Righteousness and not answer the Law a Righteousness without a Conformity thereunto this is something mysterious when there is no such indeed in Nature Or that Faith without Works should yet be made or constituted such a Righteousness as Formally to justifie us this is the Matter Revealed and called the Righteousness of God because of this Ordination That we may not mistake the word Formally A Man may be Formaliter just two ways says Mr. Wotton Qualitate Lege Qualitate no Man is formally just he counts but he that is perfectly conformable to the Law which no Man is But Lege a Man is just he says Formaliter by Pardon Cùm omnis imputatio culpae sublata est Let me give this a Turn Qualitate Faith is not Righteousness to wit Tali qualitate and such a Righteousness but Lege Lege Evangelii Faith is It is not Ex rei Natura but Ex Dei Constitutione that Faith is made the Righteousness that justifies The Foundation-mistake of Protestant and Papist lies in this that they dispute as if it were by the Law we are to measure this Righteousness and be judged When it is to be measured and God will judge us according to the Gospel A Conformity to the Law of Works Fac hoc Vives is the Righteousness these Disputants still thought on but it is a Conformity to the New Law the Law of Grace Crede saluaberis that St. Paul means by the Righteousness of God that justifies Sinners Our Divines here since Mr. Baxter wrote understand the Point better Justification says Mr. Williams is a Judicial Act of God by a Gospel Rule supposing Christ's Satisfaction Gos Truth p. 108. There is more of Light in one such Line now than heretofore in a Volume of Disputation Fides est conditio says Mr. Wotton quidem talis condition ad Justificationem per Christum in foedere gratuito qualis erant Opera ad Justificationem ex operibus Legis Hence I argue But Works were the Formal Righteousness of Justification by the Law Ergo Faith is the Formal Righteousness of our Justification by the Gospel To come more home than I have already from the same Notion before in Melancthon and Chemnitius to the Conscience especially the Tender one of every Christian here are two things that go into this Formal Righteousness Faith and the Imputation of it for Righteousness Here is Faith which is our Gospel-Righteousness and this being short it is through Christ's Merits that it is imputed to us in the stead of one that is perfect Faith indeed says Luther upon Gal. 3 v. 6. is a Formal Righteousness and yet this Righteousness is not enough for after Faith there remains certain Remnants of Sin in our Flesh wherefore the other part of Righteousness must be added to finish the same in us that is to say God's Imputation Here Luther acknowledges Faith is a Formal Righteousness which I note to remove Prejudice but in regard to its Imperfection there must be God's Imputation or it would never justifie us I say thus likewise our Faith and Duty being imperfect it is through Christ's Merits and his Merits only that God does accept it or impute it for Righteousness Christian Righteousness says Luther again consisteth in two things Faith in the Heart and God's Imputation It is lively true as to my meaning The holiest Men have Concupiscence Passions remains of Infidelity but such Faults says he are not laid to their Charge because of their Faith in Christ. That is because of Christ's Merits our Faith relying or trusting on those Merits God forgives the Failings and accepts of it forgiven Deus imputat istam imperfectam fidem ad justitiam perfectam propter Christum This is full indeed to my purpose as nothing can be fuller But the Lutheran Imputation and Mine I confess are not the same Theirs is an Imputation of Christ's Righteousness in itself which cannot be ours but in Imagination Mine is of the Merit only of his Righteousness which is made ours indeed in the Effects Theirs is an Imputation of that Righteousness In se to the Person which cannot be Mine is an Imputation of this Merit to our Performances which does verily render them acceptable for all their Imperfection to Life Eternal * There is the Duty and the Condition I am saying there of the Law of Grace or the Gospel No Man we must know does perform the Duty but every Man must perform the Condition our Divines will say or he cannot be saved This Condition as obtained for the World is the Grand Benefit of Christ's Purchase or Main Fruit of his Death and is accepted when performed only through him It is not for my Works or Merit sayest thou that my Person is accepted but for Christ's Righteousness and in this alone is thy Comfort And I say it is not for the Works sake or Merit of any thing or all we do but for Christ's sake that the Condition is accepted and in this is my Comfort In this it is I account that we have or can have any grounded Sustentation To say thou art justified by Christ's Righteousness when yet thou must acknowledge his Righteousness is none of thine unless thou hast performed the Condition what empty Comfort is that But to say that through Christ's Merits and Righteousness this itself which I do is the Condition here is Comfort indeed That what we are enabled
by his Grace I say to do how little soever if sincerely done if it be but the Grain of Mustard-seed in a hungring and thirsting after Righteousness shall be accepted unto Life that is be that Condition upon the Account of what Christ hath done for us this I say is solid Consolation Thou sayest when I look on my Works my Heart sinks I am not sure I am sincere but in the Righteousness of Christ I am safe I say this is certain if thou art not sincere thou art not safe And when I doubt whether I am or not I can have no Support but in this that I hope I am I trust I am and that it is upon the Satisfaction and Merit of Christ that Faith that Hope does depend For that there is any Condition at all that the Condition is such that what I do shall be accepted as the Condition performed it must be all put upon Christ's Performance and Merit in our behalf and his Merit is sufficient however imperfect be our Duty for its acceptance with God When then upon a Sence of my Deficiency instead of sinking I grow bolder in my reliance on Christ's Merits and God's Mercy I do not presume on myself but I magnifie his Grace and the higher I raise my Faith thereupon provided I live not willingly in any Conscience-wasting Sin the more Glory am I humbly perswaded do I give my gracious Saviour and good God Thou Man hast the Comfort to apply to thy self Christ's Merits if thou hast performed the Condition But I have the Comfort to apply Christ's Merits to the Condition which makes his Yoke easie and his Burden light as to the Performance and my Desires and weakest Endeavours to find Acceptance When I read such Prayers of David That God would not enter into Judgment with him that he would not be extream to mark what he had done amiss for then he could not abide it and that yet he will have God to search him and try his Reins and Heart and the like I cannot but be convinced that in the Acceptance of such an imperfect Righteousness as he accounted his was through God's meer gracious Condescension Mercy and Forgiveness to him he placed his Justification in which Sence also he calls him the God of his Righteousness When as for any Acceptance of him through the Righteousness of the Messiah to come a Righteousness without him made his by Faith which could abide God's district Justice I find not the Footstep of one such Thought To rely therefore I will say on Christ's Righteousness as ours without regard to any thing within or without regard to the Condition is Self-deceiving But to rely on God's Mercy and on Christ's Merits for Acceptance of what we do and Pardon for the Failings is substantial Religion and of Justification by Faith in Christ's Blood a good Exposition I will fetch here one Leaf out of my late Book Pacification and put it into the Margin for the Use and Comfort of this Explication I return to Mr. Wotton who indeed does sweat with stir to prove that Remission of Sin is Righteousness for wiping off that blame the Papists lay on his Opinion that a Man is justified without a Righteousness if it be by Pardon only But this I stick upon that though pardon in some Sence is or may be called Righteousness yet is it not this Righteousness it is not the Righteousness of God I am concerned about that the Apostle means and which is by Mr. Wotton's own acknowledgment that which justifies the Believer It did I must needs say at first and still does move me that I find not one Scripture from Genesis to the Revelation that denominates any one to be a just or righteous Person from Pardon but from his righteous living He that doeth Righteousness is righteous Yet that which does convince me is that by Mr. Wotton's leave it is not Remission of Sin in opposition to Works but this Righteousness of God in opposition to Works and that is our Evangelical Righteousness which the Apostle means while he contends that it is by Faith and not Works that we are justified or that is Faith and not Works is our Formal Righteousness in Justification See a peculiar Argument I offer in my Mid. Way of Just p. 48. I am I say convinced that the Notion the Apostle had of Justification could not be Pardon because in his Dispute whether it be by Faith or Works we are justified he does suppose that if a Man had Works they would justifie him and make the Reward of Debt but that Abraham and none had or have them And consequently while he supposes that if a Man could keep the Law as if Adam in Innoceny had kept it he should be justified it is plain he cannot understand Pardon by Justification seeing where such Works are that is perfect Works which he certainly means there were no Sin to Pardon This Argument may be more pungently framed than it is here or there but the Medium of Probation arose to me in my Mind as perfect Conviction I will now define Justification Justification is an Act of Free Grace whereby God imputes to every Sound Believer his Faith for Righteousness upon the Account of Christ's Satisfaction and Merits giving him Pardon and Life as the Benefits of it I need say nothing of the Genus Definiti an Act of Free Grace it is the Assemblies By a Sound Believer I mean one whose Faith works by Love including Repentance and New Obedience which together makes our Evangelical Righteousness And this Sound Faith is imputed for Righteousness I account in this Sence that God does accept it in the room of a perfect Righteousness not accounting it as perfect but accepting it I say in the room of that Perfection required unto Life by the Law and consequently rewarding it for Christ's Merit sake as much if not more than if it were that I add then giving Pardon and Life as the Effects or Benefits distinguished from the Form of Justification A Right to Impunity and Life Christ hath purchased and gives by his Covenant they that are justified by this Covenant are adjudged to these Benefits so that Pardon and Salvation flow to us I say as the Benefits and are not the Form of Justification One of them is never accounted to be the Form and by the same Reason neither may be the other The Gospel-Law or Covenant does both make and declare all Believers righteous as having a Right to the Benefits of it by Performance of the Condition But as for this or that particular Person that is a Believer or Performer it is God must be Judge This Judgment is to be supposed preceding and the Benefits to be actually conferred by it When I say this Righteousness or Faith is the Form I understand it in that Sence as these Divines do who say Christ's Righteousness is the Form or Remission is the Form the Word therefore is not to be scrupled not
the Form of that Imputation but of Justification passively taken I add at last upon the Account of Christ's Merits or through Christ or for Christ's sake because this Faith of ours or Evangelick Righteousness hath so many Defects in the best of Christians that if through the Sacrifice of Christ they were not pardoned and through his Merits that imperfect Duty which is done accepted it could not be imputed to us for Righteousness And I do more especially signifie thereby that Christ's Righteousness which cannot be imputed to us as the Formal Cause of our Justification is and must be very carefully brought to our Account and granted to be imputed as the Meritorious Cause of that Acceptation And in making it the Meritorious I have learn'd of Mr. Baxter to allow it to be the Material also which he says is nothing else but to be the Matter of that Merit because I make our Faith the Formal in our Justification After this I distinguish between this pardoning and bearing with the Defects of our Faith Repentance New Obedience which are the Conditions of the Gospel Covenant and so our Gospel Righteousness or that which is imputed for Righteousness and that General or Total Pardon which the Covenant promises and becomes Absolute upon performing the Condition The one of these is that very Grace or Act of Grace itself as goes into that Act of Imputation or Act that imputes our Faith for Righteousness when the other I say still is the Effect or Benefit following Justification Justification being thus defined by God's imputing a Man's Faith to him for Righteousness it may be understood what Mr. Baxter still tell us that Justification is the making us righteous as well as the accounting us righteous and dealing with us as righteous I have been shy hitherto of admitting the first of these because of the Papists but I will now distinguish There is a making a Man just or righteous by Infusion or by Imputation Gods making a Man just by Infusion is Regeneration which the Papists hold and we distinguish from Justification I suppose Mr. Baxter once intended no other Those that will have Justification nothing but Forgiveness do readily grant this that Justification makes one just for when Sin is forgiven so that there is not the Guilt of any Omission or Commission imputed to a Person he is made Righteous by Non-imputation But I am for neither of these Justification is not making a Man righteous by Infusion nor by Non imputation but by Imputation God imputing our Faith to us for Righteousness Per formalem Justificationis causam justi constituimur Our Faith and Evangelick Obedience is imperfect and sinful and we are unrighteous in the Eye of the Law for all that but God in his judging us according to the Law of Grace does allow of that for Christ's sake instead of all which the Law requires to our Justification By this may that Expression of the Apostle that God justifies the Ungodly be rightly understood Not in the Sence or either of the former that take it only in Sensu diviso so that he who before his Justification was ungodly is no longer so after but In sensu composito Our Faith I say or Evangelical Obedience in regard to the Law or in regard to those Works that are required by the Law to our Justification are no Righteousness no Righteousness which in its own Nature would justifie us but God constitutes it such by the Law of the Gospel and according to that Law imputes it to us for Righteousness A Man believes Let us suppose that Sound Faith The Spirit must have been given to work it in him Where the Spirit is given to work inherent Grace in a Person he is Regenerate But this Regeneration is not Justification For suppose a Regenerate Man should live all his Life as righteously as he is able yet if God should deal with him according to the Law of Works he is still ungodly in that regard and he could not be justified and God's dealing with him otherwise according to his Law of Grace and accounting or adjudging him righteous by that Law notwithstanding all his Failings for Christ's sake is this imputing Faith to him for Righteousness which is the Formal Reason of Justification I must take leave to rake this again a little over for I see some need and I must confess Mr. Baxter hath perplexed me often as to this particular In some of his Books he speaks of Justification making us just by Pardon which freeing us from the Guilt of all Sin Omission and Commission does make us he accounts righteous as we can be made In others he seems to understand with Augustine that Justification makes us just by Grace inherent A Man must believe and repent before he is justified He cannot do that without God's Grace God does therefore first make him righteous by this inherent Grace before he accounts him just or deals with him as such Mr. Baxter was induced to this I think by the Judicious Le Blanc who apprehends that there are three or four places for which he quotes some of our chief Protestants that make Justification the same with Sanctification Unto which Texts I should choose rather to give Answer according to others than to consent to this because it comes so near the Papists as to leave us almost no difference from them I will therefore advance here a Distinction to the same purpose as but now which among the many Mr. Baxter hath he yet has not and it is this There is a threefold making a Man just By Conversion or Regeneration and this is Austine's and the Papists Justification By Pardon and this is Mr. Wotton's Justification Or by the Righteousness of God which I made the Subject of these Sheets as something between Protestant and Papist and this is God's imputing our Faith for Righteousness which is my Justification and I will call it mine because I take it to be the Scriptures where it is expresly delivered as cannot be gainsaid The Papists Opinion to make things clear is that the Grace of God infused is the Formal Righteousness that justifies us or makes us just in God's sight according to the Law of Works Justitia Habitualis à Deo infusa satis est ut homo illa indutus possit in Divino judicio sisti vere justus haberi In this Sence the Protestants lay down this contrary Position that a Sinner is justified not by any Formal Righteousness in himself but by the Mercy of God through the Satisfaction of Christ. The Protestants I own here against the Papist according to the Papists Sence Our Faith or Evangelick Righteousness or inherent Grace I must say this over is imperfect and cannot be our Formal Righteousness according to the Law it is no Conformity to the Law of Works and they of Trent thought of no other but our imperfect Faith Repentance New Obedience is a Conformity to that which God hath made the Condition
of Life by his Law of Grace or the Gospel and is our Formal Righteousness according to that Law being made so by that Act of Imputation which may be attributed to God or his Law when he imputes it to us for Righteousness as I have had it already By the Evangelical Law this is our Righteousness we are made righteous that is not guilty of the Non-performance of the Condition according to Mr. Baxter To this purpose aforesaid I will note that when in that remarkable Text Rom. 3.30 Predestination Calling Justification and Glorification are linked without mentioning Sanctification we must suppose that intended either in Calling or Justification and I have always received it under Calling that is Effectual Calling or Conversion Now a Man is converted and he believes and repents but this being no Righteousness according to the Law there comes after Calling Justification and it is that makes this imperfect Believing Repenting New Obedience to become our Righteousness by Imputation God's imputing it to us for Righteousness making it by that Act Et Juris Judicis to serve us in the room of such a Righteousness as is perfect rewarding it for Christ's sake as he would the other The having Faith Repentance New Obedience is one thing the having it accepted for Righteousness is another The one is Regeneration or Sanctification the other Justification and without the one there cannot be the other Fides inquiunt justitia nostra formalis esse non potest Concedo upon his Opinion he must say so not I tho' in the Popish Sence I say Concedo too At potest à Deo justitiae loco haberi ut preater ipsam nihil amplius à nobis flagitet ad justitiam consequendum says Mr. Wotton As for this Righteousness of God now in his imputing to the Believer his Faith or the Performance of the Evangelick Condition for Righteousness we must not conceive as Dr. Owen objects that here is an Imputation only of that which is ours so that accounting it an imperfect Righteousness God cannot deal with us but only according to an imperfect one When he does certainly deal with us according to a perfect one and we understand so by this Imputation Dr. Owen who never gave the Matter its due Consideration not perhaps Mr. Baxter neither Philosophizes thus There is an Imputation to us of a thing that is Ours and that is judging it Ours and dealing with us accordingly Or of a thing which is not Ours and that is by a Donation of it on some just Ground and dealing with us according to it made Ours Of this he makes the Application that our Righteousness cannot but Christ's must be that which is imputed to our Justification But I will Philosophize otherwise and so may any that * When ever we read of Imputing or Accounting to a Man a thing that is good it is an Act of Grace and Law-acceptilation and signifies something which is not Truman's Endeavour p. 222. please As there is therefore an imputing to a Person that which is His or that which is not His So is there an imputing also to a Person that which is partly His and partly not His but that which in the Effect may become His too by the Imputation Such is the Case here but never sunk in the Doctor 's Mind There are two things in the matter I have said before from Luther Our Faith and God's Imputation Our Faith or the Evangelick Condition performed which is Ours and God's Imputation which brings with it in the Effect I say that which was not Ours that is the Satisfaction and Merits of Christ his Satisfaction for Pardoning the Failings and his Merit for accepting that which is done though imperfect to the accounting us righteous and dealing with us no otherwise than if we were perfect A Man that has not a legal sinless Perfection for that is meant by the Ungodly Rom. 4.5 his Faith is accounted for Righteousness that is his Faith shall avail him as much to all intents and stand him in as much stead as a perfect sinless Righteousness would do says Sir Charles Wolesley in his Book of Evangelical Justification This is most certain that there is no Grace vouchsafed to a Sinner from God in order to Life but upon the Account of Christ's Satisfaction and Merit against the Socinian When this exceeding Grace and Favour therefore that an imperfect Righteousness is accepted in the room of a perfect one as is intended in this express Scripture that says Our Faith is imputed for Righteousness the Satisfaction and Merits of Christ must be supposed as its Foundation And consequently they are imputed to our Faith for its Acceptation as we say they are imputed to us for Ours That Christ's Righteousness is imputed to us we assume without Scripture but this is express that Righteousness is imputed and that our Faith is imputed for Righteousness and it will be strange if any shall question an Imputation of Christ's Merit to our Duty when it is accepted and accepted only through him Our Dissenting Brethren in their Printed Agreement Dec. 1692. have these Words God looking on the Good Works of Believers in his Son is pleased to accept and reward that which is sincere though accompanied with many Weaknesses and Imperfections I quote these Words not as rare but as the common Judgment to shew that an Imputation of Christ's Merit to our Duty is undeniable Here are the Believers Works and that is our imperfect inchoate Obedience and this accepted and it is accepted in Christ that must be through his Satisfaction and Merit and is rewarded too upon his Account What is there more in the accepting our Persons in Justification Our maimed Righteousness is accepted to Salvation as if it were perfect says one Dr. Owen cites for that it should be so Christ hath merited by his most perfect Righteousness When this unnamed Author says As if it were perfect he accounts it it is not so Legally or In se but Evangelically or quoad Effectum that is it stands us in the stead of a perfect one through the Merits of Christ And unto this saying of his whosoever he be does that Elder in the Revelations well accord who tells St. John that the Robes of the Saints which are their inherent Grace their Good Works or Holy Life are made white that is rewardable with Glory by their washing them in the Blood of the Lamb. We are accepted in the Beloved that is in Christ We are accepted in Christ no otherwise than our Duty is accepted that is as the Meritorious Cause of that Acceptance The Satisfaction and Merit of Christ is that upon the Account whereof God does justifie us But if Christ's Righteousness it self be imputed to us it is not Meritoriè upon the Account thereof but Formaliter that we are justified by it Before I yet quite leave Mr. Wotton there are two Texts most commonly urged by those that define Justification only by Remission
which I must speak to not stopping at Human Argument unbacked with Authority of Scripture The one is Acts 13.38 Be it known unto you Men and Brethren that through this Man is preached to you Forgiveness of Sins And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses For this Text I have forelaid a Distinction with some Reference in my Mind to it There is a double Remission I have said a Remission that precedes Justification and a Remission that comes after it That which goes before Justification belongs to All but upon Condition and that is this Remission which in the former Verse of the two is Preached by the Apostle A Universal Conditional Remission and all one with Redemption This now being Preached to all some believe and perform the Condition and as it follows in the other Verse are accordingly justified and then this General Conditional Pardon before Preached becomes Absolute or Actual to such Particular Persons and they are thereby free from the Guilt and Punishment of all their Sins whatsoever even such as there was no Attonement allowed to be made by the Law of Moses The Law or Covenant of the Gospel promises Pardon and Life upon Condition He that performs the Condition hath Right to the one and the other but a Man must be Justified before he is Glorified and therefore before pardoned also There is a Pardon procured by Christ granted and passed by God we must suppose as an Act of Grace passing in Parliament This Pardon is given out orderly The Condition must be performed the Judge find it and then the Man hath the Benefit This aforesaid Distinction therefore is exemplified in this Text and seeing there is no Particular Actual Pardon 'till Man's Believing and God's Justification which is his accounting or declaring him a Believer do orderly intervene as to the Course of the Nature of the Thing it is plain that Remission this Remission as well as the other is not Justification itself but a Benefit of the Covenant that as Conditional goes before but as Actual or Absolute which is that a Particular Man enjoys does follow Justification I must say still as the Effect of it The other Text is in Rom. 4. where Paul shewing that it is not by Works but by Faith that we are justified after Abraham's Example he lays down this Position That not to him that worketh but believeth his Faith is accounted for Righteousness And then in the next Verse coming to bring Proof from David he ushers it in these Words Even as David also described the Blessedness of that Man unto whom God imputeth Righteousness without Works whereby it is plain indeed that he intends the same thing by God's counting to a Man his Faith for Righteousness and imputing to him Righteousness without Works that is such Works Meritorious Works Perfect Works which Paul in the Verses before undoubtedly intends But it is not so in the Quotation itself which thus follows Blessed are they whose Iniquities are forgiven and Sins covered Blessed is the Man to whom the Lord will not impute Sin It is a mistake here in those many who think this Non-imputation of Sin in this Verse is the same with the imputing Righteousness without Works and Faith for Righteousness in the former St. Paul does intend indeed those two before for one but this he intends only for a Probation He proves that God imputes Righteousness to a Man without Works or Faith for Righteousness by this Medium that they are blessed who are forgiven Now however these Words are construed this is no Definition of Justification by Faith without Works but I say a Probation The Man is blessed whose Sin is pardoned The Man therefore hath Sin to be forgiven He that hath Sin hath not Works such as Paul speaks of to justifie him If the blessed Man then be a justified Man it is evident thereupon that it is not by Works one is justified However from a Probation this Identity cannot be argued They are blessed in one Verse to whom Righteousness is imputed without Works They are blessed in another to whom God imputeth not Sin Ergo Non-imputation of Sin and imputing Righteousness without Works are the same I deny the Argument Blessed are they that hear the Word and keep it Blessed are they whose Sins are forgiven Ergo Hearing and obeying the Word is Forgiveness of Sin But leaving such Pushpin of Pro and Con I will take up with this That which is made a Medium or the Medius Terminus to prove another thing cannot be that thing or intended for the same thing that it proves And seeing the Quotation out of the Psalmist The Man is blessed whose Sins are forgiven is brought by the Disputant for a Probation of his Point in hand that a Man is justified by Faith and not by Works I am sufficiently perswaded that Non-imputation of Sin or Pardon is not intended by him to be the same thing with Justification If any require more Consideration in regard to these two Texts let him read a Book called The Christian Justification stated I need say no more but thus much which is not said there or throughly comprehended by that Author I know indeed and will not pass it that Mr. Truman a Man of a bright Judgment defines Justification as Mr. Wotton by Pardon only and says that Justification is no more or hath no more in it than Pardon and therefore is all one with it This in regard to the common Opinion which says it is more defining it by the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness as well as Forgiveness of Sin is to the purpose But what if I say Pardon is more than Justification then is it nothing to me For whether Justification be more than Pardon or Pardon more than Justification if one be more than the other they are not the same Now Pardon is a Fruit or Benefit of Justification and a Thing alone is not so much as the Thing and its Benefit Pardon and Life makes up Salvation for Salvation from Wrath is Pardon and to Glory is Life but Salvation coming after is a farther Blessing and more indeed than Justification only Pardon Mr. Truman says farther of all Sins he means both of Omission and Commission puts a Man in that State as if he had offended the Law in nothing and that is all one with a State as if he had performed the Law in every thing and therefore Pardon and Justification are the same Our Divines he opposes deny these States to be one Though they be consequentially one they are in their Nature different Pardon is of the Guilty Justification of him that pleads Not Guilty But I will suppose Mr. Truman in the right and that Pardon puts a Man in a State as if he had trespassed in nothing which Quoad rearum poenae is true and consequently as if he had obeyed in all things And therefore do I deny Justification
of it which I have been careful to keep to in my last Sheets Nay tho' I say farther that when the Satisfaction of another is imputed to the Justification of a Man the Trespasses of that other after a sort must be said imputed to him and yet neither is that Satisfaction Formaliter made his that is justified nor that Trespass Formaliter made his that makes the Satisfaction but Effective or Meritorie only in the one's bearing the Punishment and the other obtaining the Benefit of it This being understood when our Divines do account that we are justified by Christ's Satisfaction so as to be made just by it and accordingly to be made righteous by the Righteousness of another which is being made just by Imputation Such Words I count ought to be a little changed and the Sence verified It should not be said by but through Christ's Satisfaction through his Righteousness through the Imputation of it and then that Truth which is in it is this that through Christ's Satisfaction or Righteousness or Imputation of it as the Meritorious Cause which we know is an external Cause moving the Efficient to act we are indeed justified but by no means must we understand them so as that it is the Formal Cause of our Justification But the truth is here that our former Polemical Divines even the chief in opposition to a Man's being justified by any Works Merits or Righteousness of his own maintain'd against the Papists that it is by Christ's Righteousness Sub genere causae formalis that we are justified or that Christ's Righteousness is so made ours by Faith as to be the Formal Reason of our Justification Our excellent Dr. Davenant undertook this Task whosoever in those times did not but where the Scripture is for us we are to trust no Mortal against it The Question as he proposes it is Quae qualis illa justitia sit quae coram Deo hominem justificat hoc est cujus intuitu ipse Deus hominem à peccato poena peccati liberum pronunciet atque favore suo vita aeterna dignum reputet Let us define the Thing by its Form and speak this Hoc est in short Cujus intuitu hominem credentem justum reputat Now Cujus intuitu all know is all one with Id propter quod that is the Meritorious Cause only when he would maintain that Christ's Righteousness is the Causa formalis that is Causa per quam we are justified He therefore being put to it is forced to affirm thus In Justificatione talis formalis causa ponenda est quae simul meritoria esse possit His Reason for it is out of the same Quiver that is more Words for the bearing out an absurd Affirmation by putting some Face upon it I am sufficiently assured he hath shot beyond the Mark and I will not go after his Arrow By the way there are two places I remember where we are said to be justified by Christ's Blood but it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and should be translated through his Blood and must be interpreted no otherwise than Cujus intuitu that is as the Meritorious Cause I say not as by Faith in his Blood which is the Formal Cause of our Justification When we speak therefore and allow our Divines to speak of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness as they ordinarily do we must understand them so as never to make our selves the Proprietors of that righteousness Legally or any way else impossible or that Faith so makes it ours as to be our Formal Righteousness which when we see such great Divines have held no wonder if the lesser Fry do swallow but that it is the Cause for which as I have said before not the Cause by which we are justified And here I will give Mr. Williams Notice that this is the Reason why the very Righteousness of Christ cannot be imputed to us but in the Effects because I say that if it were imputed to us In se it must according to our opposite Brethren be then our Formal Righteousness which he and I are to deny I must confess I think Mr. Williams might not have so fully digested this before as likewise myself as he may now and that the Expression of his which I have exagitated in my Book with that which follows in his that Christ's Righteousness is pleadable by the Believer as if himself had done and suffered what Christ did as also To impute to one what is suffered by another is to esteem the one undertaken for in the Sufferings of the other and to deal with him as if himself had suffered are shot too high For if a Man had made Satisfaction himself or God did impute Christ's Satisfaction to him so as if himself had made it then were this his Formal Righteousness and there were no need of that of Faith this alone being that which must immediately justifie him If therefore there be such a thing to be expected ever from Mr. Williams as any Vestigia retrorsum I will be ready to look for the Prints thereof made in the Words I have quoted as well as his Brethren may in any others But the Difficulty concerning the Point of the Concurrence of Christ's Righteousness and Ours in the matter of Justification is not yet off our hands For there is a Sermon of Mr. Gibbons that Mr. Baxter often commended which I think fit to mention This Gentleman hath treated the Doctrine of Justification as I. Righteousness says he is a Conformity to the Law A Man is actually justified when he is constituted righteous The New Law runs thus He that believes shall not perish The Believer keeps or fulfils this Law Faith therefore is imputed to him for Righteousness The Law-Giver by his very making the Law constitutes him righteous and the Judge must pronounce him so The Gospel then justifies Qua lex Lata Faith justifies Vi Legis latae As the King's Stamp gives the Value to the Money I set this together and quote it for the clearness of it and my approbation to it Nevertheless he tells us also That it is Christ's Satisfaction in respect to the Law of Works that is our proper Legal Righteousness and I call it says he Our Righteousness because it becomes imputed to us upon believing These are Words that in appearance are Ambidextrous holding with the Hound and running with the Hare as the Proverb is unless we put an Understanding upon them which I am not sure that very ingenuous but young Man did As likewise such Words or Sence as Mr. Williams hath somewhere concerning this double Righteousness Christ's and Ours accounting the one the Principal and the other Subordinate to it Now if Mr. Gibbons or Mr. Williams hitherto should have conceived our Righteousness we call Evangelical to be Subordinate to Christ's which was His but not Our Legal Righteousness Sub ratione ejusdem causae they are Mired But when thus much is forelaid that Christ's Righteousness
Son that an Evangelical only may be accepted from Man A perfect one offered for us to God that our inchoate and imperfect one may be imputed to us for Righteousness through him and that is to make it serve the turn as that a perfect one would have done if we could have performed it Faith is really says Mr. Baxter the Condition of the Covenant of Grace which who so performeth he is righteous against the Charge of Non-performance of that Condition And supposing Christ's Merits and our Redemption by him this Gospel Righteousness is all that is required of us on our parts instead of all that perfect Obedience which the Law of Innocency required Let Mr. Williams therefore be here perswaded that there is no making Christ's Righteousness Ours any otherwise than in the Effects Yet let him believe too that Christ's Righteousness is made Ours in the Effects for the Effects are Ours And this is one Effect wherein it is made Ours that our Faith is imputed to us for Righteousness and also that consequently there needs no perfect one In se to be imputed because this imperfect one is instead of one or as good to us as one by that Imputation But if Christ's Righteousness was Legally Ours or imputed to us otherwise than in the Effects then could not our Faith be imputed to us for Righteousness that is instead of a perfect one because a perfect one were imputed to us already in Christ That there are two Righteousnesses concur in our Justification I am satisfied with Mr. Baxter but when he speaks of one to be subordinate to the other or subservient I cannot but hear Dr. Owen objecting That upon this Supposition Christ's Righteousness is made to serve Ours which else could not be imputed for Righteousness and therefore Ours is not subservient to That It is necessary therefore for us to keep in our Minds that our Righteousness and Christ's concur in our Justification but not on the same Account not under the reason of the same but diverse Causes and therefore if they be held Co-ordinate I see no hurt so long as they are not Co-equal the one being of infinite Value and giving Virtue to the other If as there are two Righteousnesses we conceive with Mr. Gibbons two Bars two Justifications that is that Christ's Righteousness is our Legal Righteousness and the Formal Cause of our Legal Justification and our Faith or Evangelick Righteousness the Formal Cause of our Evangelical Justification there were no question in making one Righteousness and Justification subordinate or subservient to the other Righteousness and Justification But if Mr. Williams when he says The very Righteousness of Christ is imputed to a Believer besides the Effects and Mr. Gibbons apprehended the Matter so we are to know Mr. Baxter must not apprehend with them who teaches that the Righteousness of Christ is not imputed In se and consequently is never to be allowed our Formal Righteousness in regard to the Law or Gospel It is something hard therefore for me to set this right only thus much we know and say with Mr. Baxter that Christ by his Obedience and Sufferings hath obtained a Grant of Impunity and Life for Sinners which he gives upon Terms we performing those Terms have a Right to those Benefits And so a Righteousness by that Right Hereof Christ's Righteousness being the meritorious procuring Cause his Righteousness is said to be Ours in regard to that Effect But there being other Effects of Christ's Righteousness besides these and this one more especially that Our Faith or the Evangelick Condition is upon that Account imputed for Righteousness which else were none how is it that our Evangelical Personal Righteousness can be said subordinate subservient to or required in order for the obtaining of the Righteousness of Christ when we have it already as to that Effect or in that Imputation It appears to me therefore not unfit to say here that the Righteousness of Christ and the Performance of the Evangelick Condition do concur to our Justification as to the Form of is which is the imputing to us that Evangelick Condition performed for Righteousness in a Co-ordination of diverse Causes as to that Effect but in a Subordination as to the Effects or Benefits both of Christ's Righteousness and Justification that follow The Fourth PART I Know in this Discourse of the Righteousness of God I do assert that which our Protestants hitherto have denied but scarce taken into their Thoughts to examine with the Bereans whether it be so or no to wit that Faith which is a living working Faith is our Formal Righteousness the reason of their denial having been much because they have confounded the Causa per quam and Propter quam and spoken of them as one as appears by Davenant before quoted and others their meaning in the Main being only that it is not our Righteousness but Christ's which is Id propter quod or Cujus merito we are justified unto which we all agree But it is time if they have understood otherwise to set the Matter right now By Faith says the Scripture again and again we are justified By is Id per quod the Causa formalis and I avert accordingly that it is Formaliter or Per modum Causae formalis that by Faith we are justified And why should I not stick to that the Scripture does so expresly warrant Davenant that here is quite opposite and holds that it is Christ's Righteousness which does Formaliter justifie us does yet acknowledge that we are in Scripture still denominated or accounted righteous by God in regard to our Evangelical Righteousness and never in regard to Christ's Now Justificari is Justum esse censeri Justi autem censemur according to him à justitia inchoata and yet Ab inchoata justitia non justificamur but à justitia Christi imputata Justi censemur says he à justitia inchoata Justificati dicimur à justitia perfectissima Christi imputata What is this but Apparent Conviction and Authoritative Tergiversasation There are two Reasons I find move our Protestants One is they are startled by a Word the Word Cause they will not have our Works nor Faith as a Work to justifie because that makes it a Cause of our Justification which to Avoid they will call it a Condition only Now a Condition being Cause sine qua non does make our Evangelick Righteousness as necessary so as we cannot be justified without it as the making it a Cause does And I find it no regret in my Mind to call it a Cause as well as a Condition for it is both only we must consider what Cause we make it If we made our Works or Faith as a Work to justifie us Sub genere Causae Efficientis it must be that which is Procatarctick and so the Meritorious Cause thereof which were to bring our Works or Faith into the Office of Christ's Righteousness and to derogate from Grace a thing we
utterly disclaim But when we make it the Formal Cause only of our Passive Justification we do nothing thereby but advance God's Grace and Christ's Merits as having obtained for us not only than God should require of us no other Condition but our Faith or this inchoate Righteousness unto Life but also that he should constitute by his Now Law this Condition performed to be our Righteousness in the room of that perfect one required by the Old So that as Adam if he had perfectly obeyed his Obedience had been his Formal Righteousness in regard to the Law so is this Ours in regard to the Gospel The other Reason then of their denial is the Supposition that both Protestants and Papists have gone upon to wit that the Law is the Rule of that Righteousness which they on both sides contend for as the Formal Reason of their Justification And upon this Account they both of them are out for the Papist on one side speaks up for inherent Grace and his Works done by it so as he would have them Meritorious and Perfect for the Papist pleads for Merit and Perfection but he can never bring them up to answer the Law seeing he must still pray Enter not into Judgment and forgive us our Trespasses and therefore the Protestant denies that our Faith or Works are any Formal Righteousness that can justifie us and I say the same in the Sence they understand one another for our inchoate Obedience cannot be so when the Law is made the Rule of it On the other side the Protestant pleads therefore for Christ's Righteousness which is a Righteousness indeed that answers the Rule they both make so but this Righteousness being without us though it be upon the Account thereof Id propter quod or Cujus merito we are justified the Papist says stiffly it can never be made Formally Ours so as to be Id per quod we are justified and I must say the same for Truth is Truth and Absurdity is Absurd whether on one side or the other The Supposition then the Ground on which they go being a Mistake it must be rectified Let us understand therefore here that there is a double Rule a Rule of Life and a Rule of Judgment there is Norma Officii and Norma Judicii as I have it in my Pacification and although the Law of Works be the Rule of Life or Duty and being the Law of Nature it must abide so for ever yet Jesus Christ having perfectly obeyed it in our stead for the fleeing us from it in regard to its Condition it is relaxed as I shew there through Grace and the Gospel made the Rule of Judgment and consequently of that Righteousness which is the Formal Cause of our Justification Christ's Obedience was perfect according to Law but it is not by the Law that God pronounces the Believer righteous The Law is not of Faith and Righteousness cometh not by the Law If it be by the Gospel then not by the Law God pronounces a Man righteous it is not by the Righteousness of Christ imputed which is a Righteousness according to the Law but by the Evangelick Condition performed which is a Righteousness accordingly accepted through the Merit and Satisfaction of Christ that the Believer is justified Inter Protestantes certum est fidem etiam vivam non esse justitiam illam per quam coram severo Dei Judicio stamus says Le Blanc This is true I have just now acknowledged but I wonder that this very considerate Man should never come to understand that that severe Judgmen of God he speaks of is the Judgment of God according to the Law and that we stand not at that Judgment I acknowledge again that at that Judgment our inchoate inherent Grace is not any Formal Righteousness or the Justitia per quam we can stand there But there is a Paternal Judgment of God according to the Gospel and at this Judgment our Faith is the Righteousness Per quam or Formal Righteousness by which we are justified If here you will conceive of two Bars you must not conceive of them as before so as if after you are justified upon a Personal Righteousness you must come to another to be justified by Christ but you must conceive of the Bar of the Law as erected first There was but two Persons ever brought to that Bar and they were Adam and Christ where the one was condemned and the other justified They were both Publick Persons and as we all were condemned in Adam so are we all freed from that Condemnation by Christ but upon the Terms of the Gospel We are then as it were already passed the Bar of the Law in Christs answering there in our Persons for us and God will never call him to any move Account so that what Charge or Accusation soever may be raised thence they are all Terrors only as those or Children going in the dark when the Charge alone we are concerned in is the Charge of Non-performance of the Gospel Condition I know our Divines are still ready to state the Question between us and the Papists thus What is that when the Conscience is â—said under the Sence of Sin that we can oppose against the Wrath of God and rest upon for our Peace It is our own Righteousness Works or Merits or is it the Satisfaction of Christ But this is partial and wide there is no Man but will answer streight to the Question and say Christ's Satisfaction It is that we all know that did or could appease God's Justice And this we all know too that we are so far from doing this our selves by our Works or Merits that Christ hath done it without our doing any thing at all towards it It was wholly of Free Grace and there can be no doubt or fear upon the Conscience in regard to that This is therefore not the Question but the Satisfaction of Christ and our Redemption by it presupposed and so a General Pardon proceding Justification already obtained which being Conditional the Question only is whether it be not by performing the Condition that we are justified to make that Pardon absolutely Ours or to have Christ's Righteousness or Satisfaction made so as to that Effect which can be ours no otherwise but Quoad fructus out effectus only This indeed is the Question between some of Ours and the Papists the more is the pity but the Question as to the terrified Christian himself can be only whether the Condition be performed If that be so the Danger is all over If you will ask further What we must rest upon and trust to here in this Case I say to the Satisfaction and Merits of Christ upon the Performance Tho' we trust not our Duty we must trust on God in Duty and I have no apprehensive fear about resting in Duty but this least we sit down short of Sincerity It is by the Performance through Christ's Satisfaction the Believer is justified There is yet
this Comfort here tho' none else in the World for this alone is worth a World that we may must ought to trust lean cast our selves upon the Satisfaction and Merit of Christ for pardoning all our Failings and accepting our poor Mite and if the Soul remains in doubt it must quiet itself upon him If with the Pharisee I justifie myself God may condemn me If I condemn myself with the Publican he may acquit me And what must I do in this Case Behold O Lord I am at thy Bar and I commit my Cause unto my Judge Thy Bar is a Bar or Throne of Grace I cast myself on thy Grace And the Lord send me a good Deliverance at the Great Day As for Actual Pardon and Life that follows Justification the Merit is to be attributed to that which procured Justification on that Condition There is nothing of Merit but Christ's throughout It is Christ's Satisfaction runs through all I must still say as the Meritorious Cause when Performance of the Condition becomes thereby the Formal Cause of our Justification I know how hardly this is like to be received by many when Dr. Owen will allow nothing of any Personal Righteousness or any Works Legal or Evangelical but excludes them all from our Justification supposing that if it be of Works any way it is not of Grace at all when it is therefore of Faith or upon the Evangelick Condition that it may be of Grace Dr. Owen is a Person whose Name I honour for his Worth Learning Comprehensive Parts and one in whom was more of a Gentleman as to his Deportment than in any Divine I knew ever among us Yet is he more Authorative sometimes in his Book than he needs which being liable to hurt the humbly Inquisitive I will speak the more positively in this matter that the Doctor is out as I believe and never came to the plain true knowledge of what Paul means by the Works he opposes to Faith in this Point of Justification Which Works are such as would justifie a Man in the Apostles Account if he had them but that no Man is justified by Works because he has them not This I am past doubt is Paul's meaning and in this particular the Learned and Honoured Sir Charles Wolesley before quoted is rather to be attended A Man says Sir Charles that has not a Legal Sinless Perfection is that Paul means by the Ungodly Rom. 4.5 In my first Papers I wrote I had this Sence of the place and I have it before and in my Pacification I say the like of that Text * For solving this Matter Austin and from him the Schools distinguish of Opera Naturae and Opera Gratiae We are not saved by Works or according to Works done in our own Strength but by Works done by Grace But is this the Apostle's meaning No I have shewn in my Book of Just that One Thing of Three wherein Austin was out and hath misled the Schools is this Notion of Grace By Grace he understands still this inherent Grace or Operation of God's Spirit in us when Paul understands it of that without his Favour or Condescension to us Not of Works but of Grace is all one as not of Desert but of Favour only Grace is Mercy without or contrary to Merit Now when the Papist receives the Solution mentioned the Protestants generally will have all Works tho of the Regenerate to be but Rags and Christ's Righteousness alone to save us But they are both out for Paul's meaning it plainer than they think Not by Works of Righteousness we have done The Righteousness which the Jew hath done is living according to the Law of Moses The Righteousness which the Gentile hath done is his living according to the Law of Nature There is neither one or the other that fulfil that Righteousness which answers God's Law so as it should be able to save him and therefore it is of Grace or Mercy that Any are saved Pacif. p. 29. Not by the Works of Righteousness we have done but according to his Mercy he saved us Which Words have put so many to the inventing Distinctions when the right understanding is to make none the meaning being only Not by the Works of Righteousness we have done because we have not done them and it must be of Mercy therefore and in another way we are saved or not at all See the Quotation above The Works then I have said there and here and must still say which Paul means are such as would justifie us such as would make the Reward of Debt if we had them that is perfect Works Such says the Judicious Le Blanc as the Law requires to Justification And as for that the Doctor hath in answer to this that it is a wild Imagination that the perfect Works of the Law will not justifie us but imperfect Works which answer not the Law will do so it does confirm what I judge of the Doctor 's Conceptions that certainly he never understood the Apostle as to this Matter who I say excludes not Works of the Law from Justification as if they would not justifie us if we had them but because none have them to be justified by them It is therefore the Righteousness of God the Righteousness of the Evangelick Condition that he in his Mercy through Christ's Merits hath instituted in the room of Works to justifie the Christian And as for the Doctor 's quoting Socinus saying this to prejudice the Reader against it I must needs say I like this excellent Doctor 's Judgment the meaner and seeing I took the Notion from Scripture and am sure I am no Socinian myself Socinus was a Man of Reason and it is to be lik'd the better for that It is a thing whether so proposed or not more worth the Thoughts of a serious Man how the Doctrine of Justification as formerly it hath been taught and is maintained by the Doctor can be made to lodge with the Doctrine of Sanctification or Regeneration in the same Scripture or be preached together in the same Gospel The Papists are so careful to have these agree that they make them one The Protestants are so careful to keep them asunder that they will not have any Works of ours not Faith itself as a Work or the Fruits of it Repentance and a Good Life to be brought into our Justification least by going to establish our own Righteousness we submit not to the Righteousness of God and perish Let the Works be wrought in us says the Doctor Of Just p. 524. if they be also wrought by us I fear their Introduction into our Justification doth include beasting This he adds is a dangerous Point even like to make us lose all the Benefit we might otherwise expect by the Grace of God I cannot but remember since I was young holy Mr. Shepherd's Book The Sincere Convert and do reflect sometimes on that Terror the Reading that and the like Books hath wrought in
it and are liable to the Curse Gal. 3.10 Our Justification against this Charge is by an Acknowledgment of the Indictment but we plead a Stature made in the Year of our Lord Christ's Death when and where it is Enacted That whosoever believes and repents shall be freed from that Condemnation That is Our Plea in short is a Pardon upon Christ's Satisfaction But this Pardon being General and Conditional there arises the Charge of the Gospel This Charge is that we have not performed the Condition And our Justification against this Charge is by pleading Not Guilty for the Performance of the Evangelick Condition accepted through Mercy and Christ's Merits is our Righteousness as Not Guilty which is shewn before of this Charge of Non-performance Here De Re I agree with Mr. Baxter but De Nomine I am not satisfied yet to allow any other than one Justification Our Justification at Judgment Come ye blessed for when I was hungry ye fed me is plainly the Evangelick Condition performed and that is the Righteousness according to which the Sentence passes and as is the Justification of the Judge such must be that of the present Law whereby he judges and that is therefore our Evangelical Justification As for the Charge of the Law I count it can have no place at the Judgment of God for the Satisfaction of Christ and the Pardon upon it cannot there be brought in question If a Charge may be supposed the Satisfaction of Christ which is our Plea against it is not Ours or imputed to us for Ours not imputed In se I and Mr. Baxter hold and so cannot be here our Formal Righteousness without which a Legal Justification thereby arises not Besides this the Pardon granted upon Christ's Satisfaction is that Universal Conditional Remission which precedes Justification and when it comes to be Absolute or Actual to any one it is the Consequent of his Justification and must not be Justification itself as some make it I am not willing therefore to apprehend that because here are two Righteousnesses there are two Justifications for Christ's Righteousness as the Meritorious Cause of it goes into that Evangelical one and makes not Another But I would have one only Justification yet set forth in Scripture and spoken of by Divines under a double Consideration as Strictly and Largely taken Under a Strict and Precise Consideration I suppose nothing but what goes into the Form of it may be said of it Under a Large and Complex Consideration I allow the thing and benefit tho' Cause and Effect which was my heretofore Scruple may be comprized in our speaking of one and the same Justification I will press this Difficulty no further nor move any other but will break off with that Resolution I take up from Chemnicius and he by the Stile I suppose from Luther Quae dialectica subtilitate dissolvi non possunt piscatoria simplicitate praecidantur And as to these aforesaid Charges or Accusations I say this only that let as many be raised as any can raise they need not every one a Particular but are all discharg'd by one Universal Evangelical Justification FINIS COROLLARIVM IN the Year 1684 I wrote four or five Sheets entituled Two Steps toward obtaining my Liberty of Preaching and a Third Step after but both at that time without effect I will suppose a Man Episcopally Ordained and one that holds Communion with the Church Such a Man yet cannot have a Living or a Lecture we know without his Declaration of Assent and Consent and his Subscription according to the Canons with Conforming in all Things beside But there is nothing to hinder him the Preaching an Occasional Sermon Prayers being duly read in any Church only the want of a License to Preach Unto such a License in the Act of Vniformity is required his Reading the Thirty Nine Articles and Assent to them before the Bishop and nothing else A Canon need not be urged it were unmerciful when an Act connives The Act indeed as well as Canons requires more to the Preaching as a Lecturer or Beneficed Man but no more to a License to Preach The Uniformity Act requiring this is bound up with the Common Prayer and is made part of that Book In the Preface hereof there is a Clause to this Sence That if any Doubts shall arise about the Vnderstanding any Matter contained in the Book the Person shall resort to the Bishop or Archbishop and he shall resolve the same That the Articles are of various and doubtful Interpretation it is apparent by the Ministers of diverse Judgments some Arminians some Calvinists subscribing them and that with Allowance of the Church If then such a Man as before qualified shall make or set down his own Construction of every such Article as he scruples and then in his reading the Article read also his Sence of it and it be such as the Bishop allows to be Orthodox a License upon this Account Salva Conscientia may be had I cannot give an unfeigned Assent to these Articles all without a Liberty of Explication but with one I may And upon that Supposition there is the Eleventh Article Entituled Of the Justification of Man which concerns me in regard to this present Book We are accounted righteous before God only for the Merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Faith and not for our own Works or Deservings Wherefore that we are justified by Faith only is a wholesome Doctrine and very full of Comfort as is more largely expressed in the Homily of Justification Art 11. By the Words Faith only I understand what Paul means by Faith without Works that is Faith in opposition to Works that would make the Reward to be of Debt and not of Grace or to the Works of the Law Works which the Law requires to Justification which none have and if any be justified at all it must be therefore without them not in opposition to Repentance and Evangelical Obedience And though it be for Christ's sake or his Merits not Ours that he accounts us righteous yet is our Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience the Condition upon which he does it or rather the Righteousness itself which upon the Account of Christ's Deservings he accepts unto Life everlasting So I have it in these mentioned Sheets J. H. ERRATA PAge 9. l. 28. for First r. Fifth p. 11.21 for Meritory r. Meritoriè p. 14. l. 34. for its r. it with a Full-point p. 15. l. 32. for Sated r. Stated p. 18. l. 26. in the Margin for that r. by which p. 31. l. 32. for rearum r. reatum p. 27. l. 2. for Cause r. Cause An ADVERTISEMENT from the Bookseller THere are several Papers of Four or Five Sheets apiece written formerly by this Author called The Middle Way of Election of Redemption of Justification of the Covenants Law and Gospel of Perfection As also Peaceable Disquisitions which Treat Of the Natural and Spiritual Man of Praying by the Spirit of Preaching by Demonstration of it of Assurance of the Arminian Grace of the Possibility of Heathens Salvation of the Reconciliation of Paul and James of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness with other Incidental Matters One of which Middle Papers that of Justification was Reprinted two Years since with the Quotation of what concerns that Subject out of the other and since that One Sheet so called and his Six Sheets last Year called Pacification All which may be bound up together with this present Discourse for any that desires them In that Book called Pacification there is the Case of Non-Resistance and Passive-Obedience Stated and Resolved the Doctrine whereof Abjured in the two former Reigns is here in this King's Reign Recorded for a Memoriae Sacrum to those which are to come Whosoever hath those Six Sheets they are desired in Page 35. Line 20. to put in the word not which the Printer hath left out to the contradicting the Scope of the Book T. P.
in God's sight whatsoever they were in their own but that all have sinned and need that Messias they expected to make Reconciliation for their Sins that our Lord Jesus Christ being that true Messias by his Death answering their Legal Sacrifices hath born the Curse of the Law and so redeemed us from it That God's undeserved Goodness here in accepting of Sinners through this meritorious Sacrifice of his to Pardon and Life upon Condition which he gives the Grace also to perform presupposed and by me acknowledg'd it is another Righteousness and not that of the Jews Not that Paul calls his own as a Jew or not a Righteousness of Works Perfect Works but a Righteousness of Faith which makes the Reward only of Grace Of Faith that it may be of Grace a Righteousness of Faith but a true Faith working by Love which is an Internal Righteousness though imperfect and not as the External Works of the Jews was is that Righteousness of God in opposition to the Terms of the Law whereby we are justified and saved The Apostle I observe in one place speaking of Faith calls it the Obedience of Faith the same Word if you compare that Text Rom. 11.30 31. with the Margin signifying both to Believe and Obey And the People believed God and his Servant Moses I will conclude hereupon that Christ's Redemption in the immediate fruit thereof which is the Grant of a General Pardon through his Satisfaction to all the World on Condition being laid as a foundation To be justified by Faith is to be justified by performing that Condition To be justified by Faith Believe me at parting is in St. Paul's Mind to be justified by the Obedience of Faith in opposition to the task of the Law that is in St. Paul's Mind I say opposing the Jew by embracing the Christian Religion and living according to it Reader In p. 14. l. 34. correct the Word its and make it it with a Full Point after Other Errataes you may find at the end of the Book or mend your self OF THE Righteousness of GOD In the Matter of JUSTIFICATION The First PART BEcause upon the right Understanding of what the Apostle means by the Righteousness of God without the Law revealed now in the Gospel which indeed is dark and hardly understood I think by Papist or Protestant in their Disputes and much less by our Brethren in their present Differences does depend the Elucidation of the Great Article of Justification whereof I wrote some Sheets formerly called The Middle Way and more lately six Sheets called Pacification I have thought good yet to write a few more upon some further increase of my own Knowledge about this Subject And under this Title I beseech God for his Light and Truth and for Integrity of Heart and Pardon of my Weakness and Failings for my self and for the removal of Prejudice from and the establishing the Judgment of others who shall read what is written The Search after Truth is indeed hard Work it is digging in a Mine It was so to me in writing on this Point at first and it is still What I dig up is but rude it is the Ore as it comes naturally and that is best to edifie those that would improve it I am one whose Genius is averse from any Notion imposed and receives none without distrust that does not arise first out of my own Mind or that I see something new to cultivate it I do not only bear with others but do like them often better that they differ from me because I know I differ from the most Where the Mine though is Gold as the Scripture is there is no Dust of it but must be saved The least Dust of Gold is Gold and if any other who hath better Words and Parts will be at the pains to sift and order what I have digged I doubt not but they may make Gold of that which I have brought to be but the Dust of Gold When a Book is so Methodized as it does exhaust its Subject there is no coming after it But when there is only some Ore turn'd up something of Notion for others to refine a riper Wit will be encouraged to an Endeavour of bringing that Something to more perfection It is so with my Middle-Way Books I am content to be but the Digger I expect some others should be the Refiners of what I have digged The Trent Doctrine which is the perfect papists I must confess is lead them bâ— St. Austine They say Justification is the making a Man just Ex impio Christianum by Infusion of Grace inherent or Charity Being justified freely by his Grace Augustine being immersed in his Dispute with Pelagius could think of Grace in no Sence but this and by Freely Gratis justified he understood only that Works preparatory did not merit this infusion which the Trent-Doctors also say after him The Efficient Cause quae efficit is the Spirit the Instrumental Cause qua efficitur Baptism the Meritorious Cause propter quam Christ's Death the Formal Cause per quam of Justification is this Grace infused Gratia Habitualis Habitual Righteousness making the Man before ungodly now righteous in God's sight This habitual Righteousness then being infused by Baptism they say does abolish Sin so that there remains in the Baptized after the Opus Operatum nothing that is Peccatum but Fomes Peccati only and upon that Account is perfect so by the Law justifies and the Works proceeding from it meritorious of Salvation This is their Opinion and they fall foul on us for holding Justification by Pardon only or by Christ without inherent Grace as if Good Works were laid aside by us altogether Our Protestants therefore renouncing this Charge do grant an habitual Righteousness or Grace infused as necessary in the justified Person but deny this Righteousness to be that which justifies him they deny Justification to be Regeneration and distinguish these as two things It is not this inherent Righteousness say they that can be opposed between the Wrath of God and our Conscience of Sin to be the Cause Propter quam we are not condemned No there is a Righteousness they add without us that is the Righteousness of Christ performed for us and by our Faith made ours that we rely upon to do this for us Our inherent Grace is inchoate imperfect and cannot standing in Judgment before God This being now partly well on both sides there is a Middle Way appears which we must take between them It is true against the Papists that there is no such Righteousness inherent though infused by the Holy Spirit as does abolish Sin and make us so just that we can oppose it to Gods Wrath so as to render him appeased with the Sinner or that the Conscience can rest on it as that Proper quod he is forgiven or saved It is true likewise against the common Protestant that there is not any Righteousness without us that can be made ours so as we
Jew in the Second yet hath he such a Faith as belongs to the first such as the Ancients before Abraham had and so long as that Faith he hath does work by Love or by sincere Obedience to God according to his Light it will justifie him as well as that which is now farther required of us under the Gospel So my Book call'd The Axe laid to the Root of Separation p. 4. From Faith or Trust in God ' Goodness Grace or Mercy which any in every Nation that feared God and wrought Righteousness had thus to be accepted and pardoned before they knew this Ground or Foundation upon which the Righteousness thereof does stand to that Faith we have now who do know it From that Faith they had in God to save them of his Free Grace before the knowledge or our clearer knowledge of Christ and our Redemption by him to that Faith we have now to save us by the same Free Grace through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus Ye believe in God says Christ believe also in me where is a Faith and a Faith Consequently from Faith that is a believing in God to a Faith which is a believing in him through Christ the Foundation of our Faith upon the Revelation of the Gospel Even the Righteousness of God which is by Faith of Jesus Christ to wit since he is revealed Upon these words Mr. Rutherford supposing the Righteousness of Christ to be the formal Righteousness that justifies us thus opposes If our Righteousness and inherent Obedience may be of Grace esteemed formal Righteousness before God by a free Evangelick Paction and an Act of God's Free Will there is no need of Christ's Satisfaction Cou. Op. p. 172 173. I answer This Learned Man hath I account here understandingly exprest the very thing as it is and that he gives for the Reason of his denial is the very Ground upon which this Righteousness as I have explained it is made good If it were not for this Satisfaction of Christ there could be no such Righteousness on God's part or on Ours God should deal with us in his strict Justice and no Man be found righteous accounted or dealt with as so in the Earth But seeing upon this Satisfaction of Christ God may be righteous and abate the Terms as they were in one Covenant and impute them however for Righteousness by another we see how our Evangelick Obedience is indeed the Formal when Christ's Righteousness is the Meritorious Cause of our Justification Our Justification I must say passively taken that is the Formal Cause or Formal Reason or Form itself of that Righteousness whereby we are justified That which we do our selves through Grace or the Spirit acting us is this our Formal Righteousness and that is the Condition of our Justification actively taken and so of the Impunity and Life that follow as the Fruits of it That we may not stray here but keep our Middle-Way between the Extreams of Papist and Protestant we must distinguish Remission and Justification The Papists say Justification is Remission and Regeneration the Protestants say it is Remission and the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness When both then make Remission to be but part of Justification and Totum and Pars may be distinguished these may But I go farther That which goes before and that which comes after Justification must be distinguished from it but such is Remission Remission therefore is Two-fold Universal and Conditional the one Particular and Absolute the other Universal Conditional Remission goes before Justification Particular Absolute follows as its Effect and so Neither must be made the Formal Reason of it He hath given us the World of Reconciliation to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself not imputing their Trespasses And we are his Embassadors beseeching you in Christ's stead to be reconciled unto God 2 Cor 5.18 19 20. Here we see a Reconciliation of God to us obtained for the World so that a Non-imputation of Trespasses belongs to all which yet precedes our being Reconciled to him and consequently our actual Believing and Justification The Reconciliation of the World to God by the Non-imputation of Sin in this Text is indeed no other but what the Apostle otherwhere calls Redemption In whom we have Redemption through his Blood even the Forgiveness of Sins Eph. 1.7 Col. 1.14 Now that Redemption does precede Justification both in the Nature of the Thing and Intent of the Apostle is manifest Rom. 3.24 Being justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus Redemption is the Ground we see of our Justification and the Ground is necessarily first to be supposed before that which is built upon it And what is Redemption Redemption is Christ's procuring or purchase of Man's delivery from Wrath due to us according to the Law for Sin or of our discharge from the Penalty called sometimes Freedom from the Law sometimes Forgiveness of Sins by the Price of his Blood or Satisfaction in our behalf but to be given out to us no otherwise than as God and Christ please and that is upon the Terms of the Gospel Of this Remission which preceding Justification must be Universal for where it is Particular the Man is justified and Conditional for if it were Absolute all must be saved no Man must conceive me to imagine our Righteousness the Formal Cause or any Cause nay or Condition Nevertheless this General Remission being given out I say to particular Persons by a new Law or Covenant which requires of us to the participating thereof that we believe repent and walk sincerely before God this Evangelical Righteousness upon that Account is the Thing that Formally justifies us Upon our Faith God does account us Believers or Performers of this Law or Covenant that is righteous by the Righteousness of Faith the Forma per quam we are made so and then this Remission before Conditional becomes Absolute or Actual Remission so commonly called as the Effect together with a Right to Heaven of this Justification Now when the Protestants ordinarily that distinguish not Remission from Justification are vehement here in reference to Grace and Works and say that no Man does or can do any thing in order to the Remission of his Sin That there is nothing and can be nothing in the whole World interposed between our Sins and God's Wrath to stave that off us but Christ's Satisfaction which was made by him and accepted of God for us while we are Sinners Enemies and have no other Qualification so that therefore our Righteousness is so far from being any Cause Efficient Material or Formal that it is not so much as a Condition of it I say it is all true it is all granted The Absolute Free Grace of God and our Redeemer is to be received with the utmost Humility of our Hearts and Thankfulness Only one thing is necessary which is that it be understood aright It must be understood of
the Remission which precedes Justification It must be understood of this Universal Conditional Remission Reconciliation Redemption when that Remission which comes after Justification as its Effect that is Particular Absolute or Actual Remission is made so or obtained only upon the Terms of the Gospel As in our Laws when a Law that is good proves inconvenient we make a New one that does not Repeal that Law but brings a Remedy against that Inconvenience So is it here The Law of Innocency or Nature is good and such as stands and must stand in all respects Unrepealed for ever but upon Man's Fall there being this Inconvenience that no Man being able to perform it perfectly we must all perish a New Law is obtained by Christ and granted by God or an Act of Grace passed by way of Remedy a Remedying Law which Enacts thus That tho' a Man does not fulfil this Law of Works as all ought yet if he Believes and Repents only he shall be pardoned and saved Every Man that does not is condemned already but if he does as soon as he does he is justified by this New Law from that Condemnation When I see Men denominated Righteous through the Old and New Testament only from their upright Walking with God and yet the most Upright to have their Failings and to place their Comfort and Hopes in God's Mercy and Grace to pardon their Failings and accept their Endeavours to please him notwithstanding their Imperfections as we may observe more especially in the Psalms When those Christians that have gone before us holy Men and Fathers have signified the like Temper in such like Expressions Tota justitia mea Domine est tui indulgentia Vae hominum vitae quantumvis laudabili si remota misericordia judicetur Inhaerens justitia sanctorum in hac Vita magis remissione pâ—ccatorum constat quam perfectione Virtutum Ego fidenter quod ex me mihi deest usurpo mihi ex visceribus Domini quoniam miserecordia affluunt nec desunt foramina per quae effluunt Omnia facta deputantur cum quod non fit ignoscitur And when in their Prayers after Confession of Sin they have been wont as they used to express themselves to fly from God's Tribunal of Justice to his Throne of Grace from his Severity to his Mercy through Christ Which through Christ must be for his Merits sake not through his imputed Righteousness for then they should stay at the Bar of his Justice still and by the Law be justified When I say I let these Reflections enter my Soul I cannot but be perswaded that the Righteousness of God whereof I am speaking and the Gospel hath Revealed to be that Righteousness whereby we are justified in opposition to Works must receive between Protestant and Papist a Middle Exposition And what now is said hitherto may be confirmed by the Light it brings for the understanding several Scriptures which are otherwise very hard of Interpretation I will begin with that in Romans the First where we find a Free Gift mentioned in several places which by the Righteousness of One came upon All Men the Apostle speaks unto Justification What is that Free Gift In one Verse we are told it is the Gift of Righteousness But what Righteousness Is it the Righteousness of Christ Our Protestants even the judicious Davenant against the Papists say so but it cannot be For that which comes by the Righteousness of One cannot be that Righteousness of One itsself nor Justification itself that follows it What is it then Why very probably this Righteousness of God we are speaking of that runs so much in the Apostle's Mind which is on God's part the Grace of the Gospel that gives Pardon and Life upon Condition of Faith and so brings Salvation to all Men procured by this Righteousness of One and that as the Medium to Man's Justification By this Key let him that will and has a better Faculty of Words than I open for me the rest of the Chapter I proceed to another Text Rom. 3.31 Do we then make void the Law by Faith God forbid Yea we establish the Law How is that The Law is established I remember Austin tells us Implendo and Faith does establish it by fetching Grace from God to fulfil it So he I add by fetching not only this Grace which is Inherent and Operative but that Grace which is Favour and Mercy in pardoning all that is defective and accepting what is done how weak soever if sincere notwithstanding those Failings unto Life through the Merits of Christ Jesus Or thus It is done by Faith because Faith which is sound and works by Love is this very Righteousness of God on our part we speak of which he accepts of unto Life instead of that of the Law upon Christ's Account And here are there certain Words I meet with in Melancthon and Chemnitius which tho' not in their perfect Sence may be used and approved Faith establishes the Law say they Dupliciter by Inchoation and by Imputation By Inchoation in the New Obedience whereof Faith is the Principle or Faith receives the Spirit as they speak to work in us that Obedience And then by Imputation in that our inchoate Obedience being imperfect and not answering the Law Faith doth apply the Satisfaction and Merits of Christ already intimated for the pardoning all its Defects and rendring it acceptable to God for his sake This I take to be agreeable to the Father before quoted Tunc tota lex impletur quando id quod non fit ignoscitur Only I must add Et quando id quod fit imputatur ad justitiam propter Christum I know these worthy Followers of Luther and also most of Calvin's Followers do understand by their Imputation more than thus even no less than that Christ's Righteousness is made ours by Faith so as God does reckon the Believer to have satisfied and obeyed the Law in him Upon supposition of which Notion here were so easie a Construction to be made of these Texts and others that are chiefly stood upon that no wonder if after one or two such Leaders there were so many embraced it If Christ's Righteousness which is perfect be in a Law-sence the Believer's then in a Law-sence the Believer performs it and so the Law is established according to this place In a Law-sence he is made Righteous by the Obedience of One and so becomes as Righteous as that One according to another Text Rom. 5.19 He is made the Righteousness of God in him Indued with the Righteousness of him who is God according to 2 Cor. 5.21 But the words Of and In Of God and In Him do plainly shew that God and Him are two and consequently that serious Man Mr. Mather with such other Divines must be out when they understand by the Righteousness of God the Righteousness of Christ who is God seeing this Construction makes them one * Justitia Dei est finis sive effectum ex
co quod Christus peccatum pro nobis factus est Hoc autem ipsum est Christi Obedientia Ergo Justitia Dei non est Christi Obedientia Wotton Besides That we might be made the Righteousness of God in him is expressed by the Apostle as the End or Effect of his being made Sin for us He was made Sin for us not Formaliter but Effective in suffering for our Sins His Sufferings was his Obedience and that his Righteousness By the Righteousness of God therefore we must not understand the Righteousness of Christ because that which is the End or Effect of a Thing cannot be the very same Thing but another differing from it There is yet that Text more which will receive the like easie Interpretation on that Supposition Christ is the End of the Law for Righteousness to him that believeth the Believer being righteous In and With and not only meritory By his Righteousness according to Rom. 10.4 But the Supposition really is too gross the Notion too hard to be digested as well as dangerous in regard to the Antinomian Consequences of it If in a Law-sence we are righteous and have fulfilled the Law in Christ then in a Law-sence God sees no Sin in us we need no Pardon God cannot in Justice punish for any thing we do with the Lerna of the like Doctrines which follow upon it If in a Law-sence Christ's Righteousness is ours and we have fulfilled the Law in him then are we in a Law-sence justified by Works when by the Works of the Law the Scripture says no Flesh living shall be justified It the Notion of Faith being imputed for Righteousness which is Scripture must be so framed as by Faith we must understand its Object Christ's Righteousness so imputed but first received by Faith or made ours by Faith as the Instrument of that Reception How then shall those many Fathers and Holy Men before Luther who never had any such Notion in their Minds Nay how shall the Patriarchs and all the Holy People from Adam to Christ have been justified as we which is to be Righteous with this Righteousness when they never had the Instrument to receive it An Instrument is that the Efficient works by And when there is not the working Cause how can there be the Effect It is not credible to me that ever any one before Christ or any of his Disciples before his Death did or could believe themselves Righteous by the Satisfaction and Obedience of the Messiah in this sence that his Righteousness should or could be their Formal Righteousness when As St. John tells us He that doth Righteousness is righteous so is this Righteousness done the Formal Righteousness and Christ's Obedience and Satisfaction the Meritorious Cause and the Account we give of its acceptance in the Sinners Justification A Third Text and parallel Place we have in Rom. 8.3 4. What the Law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh c. That is I suppose when through the Fall no Man could perform the Condition of the Law of Works God sent his Son as it follows to be a Sacrifice for Sin to procure a Law of Grace That the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit How is that when none can fulfil the Law through the Weakness of the Flesh do we fulfil it Yes It is not said fulfilled in Christ but in Us and it is fulfilled by this Righteousness of God which being on our part all one with the Obedience of Faith God upon Christ's Account imputes that to us for Righteousness or reckons it instead of fulfilling it making it as good to us and rewarding us alike as if we had perfectly performed it It is an Obedience or Righteousness indeed not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I have it before according to the Rigour of the Law but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Equity of the Gospel It is not in its own Nature a Righousness falling short of the Law that would justifie us but it does it by Divine Institution and therefore called the Righteousness of God It is an Ordination of Grace through Jesus Christ and therefore is God righteous in what he does But on our part it is called the Righteousness of Faith I do observe therefore how that Religiously Learned Gentleman Sir Charles Wolesley having wrote his Book of Justification after I had wrote and he had read my Sheets on the same Subject hath these Words upon that forementioned Critical Place 2 Cor. 5.21 The meaning is this says he Christ that was without all Sin was ordained of God to be a Sacrifice for Sin that we might thereby be made righteous with the Gospel Righteousness for that is the general meaning every where of the Righteousness of God Sir C. W. p. 64. This I know I delivered as my Judgment in those Sheets and his saying the same after is as much as if he had said I have considered what you say and am convinced that this is the meaning of that Text and that you are right in your Sence of the Righteousness of God It is a walking after the Spirit not after the Flesh though not perfectly up to our Duty And the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus after which we walk in our measure does set us free from the Law of Sin and Death I will proceed to some Consequences like to be good or ill as they follow upon a right or mistaken understanding of this Righteousness If by it the Righteousness of Christ imputed be understood By the exercise of Faith in apprehending the same to be made ours so as to bring it before the Tribunal of God's Justice for our Justification thereby according to the Law of Works the very Life of that Faith or Comfort of that Life which consists in trusting resting relying on God's Mercy and Goodness for pardoning all the Failings of our Performances and accepting them even our very Desires and weakest Endeavours through the Merits of Christ unto Life so as by that Faith we have access to the Throne of Grace and are justified according to the Gospel is stopt perverted if not quite contradicted and lost Nay if the End of Christ's Obeying and Satisfying the Law was that his Satisfaction and Obedience should be made ours upon Condition for our Divines here are cautious and do generally take heed to put in that to wit upon Performance of the Terms the Gospel requires of us in order to it and not otherwise then cannot the Merits of Christ be so rationally I think applied thus as I speak to the Performance of the Condition Our Divines indeed do say that Christ hath not only procured this Imputation on Condition but Grace also for the Performance of the Condition some say General Grace for all that will some Special that makes some to will but this Condition must be performed by our Free-Will or Grace so
Scripture speaks Lingua Filiorum hominum as the Jews say Or as the Schools Secundum nostrum concipiendi modum in many Matters incomprehensible To leave Mr. Wotton's Genus Definitionis therefore to himself without farther concern he hath defined Justification by Remission of Sin in opposition to those that define it by the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness and he hath elaborately proved this to be the Sence of the Church of England and Calvin's with many others I do now agree with Mr. Wotton herein in excluding the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness in his Sence intended that is as our Formal Righteousness out of the Definition because there is no such thing as the Imputation thereof In se tho' the Merit of it be imputed to Believers as to the Effects But I do not agree with him in making Remission of Sin to be that he wont let the other be the Form or Formal Reason of our Justification Because I hold with Mr. Bradshaw our Actual Pardon to be the Effect or Benefit of it The Righteousness of God which is not yet throughly understood by Protestant or Papist and I have made the Subject of this Dissertation is indeed that Formal Righteousness we are seeking and I do not think that any Man in his first natural reading Paul's Epistle to the Romans who brought not his Understanding from without to the place did ever apprehend by that Righteousness of God now Revealed when Remission of Sin was a thing never Hid that Pardon only is to be understood I will advise every Judicious Man therefore when any material Point is concerned in a Text to ponder it in the Original several times 'till he come to some Resolution about it in his own Mind because when he hath sucked in the Sence of another his own Judgment is worth nothing Mr. Wotton hath said enough to turn a Man to his Opinion he is so rational a Man but having been myself otherwise inclined as to the Sence of this Righteousness and finding the Scripture calling no Man righteous but upon the Account of doing righteously I cannot comply with Mr. Wotton in his Notion nor with the contrary in such as the hitherto prevailing Dr. Owen in theirs The Ministry of the Gospel is called the Ministration of Righteousness upon the Account of this Righteousness as also the Ministration of the Spirit in regard of the Grace the Spirit brings to perform it which Austine I remember in his Book De Spiritu Littera hath told us It can by no means be called the Ministration Thereof in regard to Remission of Sins There are many the like Arguments I think I could find out against Mr. Wotton's Opinion but that my Discourse is rather to be Demonstrative than Elenctical and therefore I must not omit that place in Daniel where it is prophesied that Christ shall bring in Righteousness that is a Righteousness procured by his Death and Merits and called an Everlasting Righteousness being that by which they that ever were are or shall be so are justified and saved and it is said brought in and at such a time when the Messiah shall be slain as it is said Now Manifested or Revealed by the Gospel which is I said but now the Ministration of it To which purpose it is to be understood and observed farther that Righteousness as well as Reconciliation and the making an End of Sins is one End of our Redemption which I have explained more * That the End of Christ's coming in the World of our Redemption and the Covenant of Grace was that we should be holy and righteous is said ordinarily by Divines according to the Scriptures but the right and plain Understanding or Reason of what they say is not said by them He hath chosen us in Christ that we should be Holy He hath redeemed us from Iniquity that we should be a peculiar People We are his Workmanship created unto Good Works in or through Christ Jesus Well! when God made Man at first and gave him a Law was it not that he should live holy And when Righteousness then was the End of his Creation and the Law thereof how is this said to be the End of his Redemption I answer therefore Righteousness or Holiness as they are one we must know does lie in a Conformity to the Law which God gives us There is nothing less than this the full Performance of a Law given that is Righteousness Upon this Account as soon as Man once fell and broke the Law of his Creation it is impossible he should be righteous any more unless there were a New Law brought in in the Performance whereof he might attain to that again which he had lost Now to this End was it that Christ came and died This was the very main Business I count of his Redemption as to free us from Condemnation by the Old so even the procuring this New Law or another Law with lower Terms which some Men performing they do thereby become righteous and so have Righteousness according to that Law imputed to them for Remission and Life Eternal Here you see what that Righteousness indeed is which Christ is said to bring in and in what Sence he hath brought it in or how such Texts as these before does attribute our Holiness to him It is called an Everlasting Righteousness as the Gospel is called the Everlasting Gospel because it is the Righteousness in opposition to that of the Law or of Works that all Men from the Beginning of the World to the End of it do obtain Everlasting Salvation Mid. Way of Justif p. 43. other-where Daniel 9.24 Titus 2.14 Well! you will say then if the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness be not the Form of our Justification nor Remission of Sins when some Protestants say the one and some the other and some both what then is the Form of it I answer Mr. Wotton hath told us truly in the rest of his Words It is God's imputing to a Man his Faith for Righteousness This is Scripture express and the Righteousness of God I am treating of is otherwhere called the Righteousness of God by Faith and the Righteousness of Faith for that is express Scripture also Justification supposes a Man just Justificationis formam justitia constare certum est God cannot account a Man righteous without a Righteousness The Papists therefore are hot here with Calvin that will have a Man be justified only by Remission of Sins without an inherent Righteousness and the Protestants as hot with the Papists that will have any inherent Grace or Righteousness of ours to be such as answers the Law that it should justifie us for by Righteousness both understand a Conformity to the Law of Works Both therefore are out There is no such inherent Grace as answers the Law nor any Grace from without either Remission of Sins or Christ's Righteousness imputed that is or can be our Formal Righteousness but it is Faith which is Grace and
to be Pardon because the Formal Righteousness of our Justification which is the Righteousness of Faith only imputed to us for Righteousness is not a Righteousness that hath offended in nothing and obeyed in every thing as Mr. Truman describes Pardon but is an inchoate imperfect Righteousness that hath Failings covered with Christ's Satisfaction and its Work done I may say still accepted only through his Merit so that the more acute this Man is and the further he does go the more he is out and must be so long as he hath not once the Sence upon his Mind through his whole Book called The Great Propitiation nor in his other two of the Righteousness of God which the Apostle himself gives us as the Handle and the only Handle to understand his Doctrine of Justification by This one thing yet is to be noted that these worthy Men that define Justification by Pardon only and say it is impossible that a Sinner can be justified or made and accounted righteous any otherwise do yet plead for a Personal Evangelical Righteousness as necessary to Justification as much or more than others Witness Sir Charles Wolesley This now to me is a Contradiction unless it be understood à parte post only For if Pardon only can make a Sinner righteous how can there be any Personal Righteousness preceding it The Matter is thus Before a Man believes and repents he is not pardoned or made righteous by Pardon that is certain When a Man performs the Evangelick Condition it is the Evangelick Law or God by it as his Instrument makes him or constitutes him righteous and being thereby so made God must account him so which is all one with imputing that Condition performed for Righteousness or justifying him This Constitutive Justification then proceeding in Order of Nature though not in Time Pardon and Life do follow as the Fruit or Benefits of it Note here that when the Evangelick Law does constitute the Performer of the Condition righteous it is righteous quoad hoc only for he is ungodly that is Not righteous still as I say before in regard to the Law but righteous as not guilty of the Accusation of his Non-performance of the Condition of the Gospel So that after this Righteousness Quoad hoc a Universal Righteousness of Not Guilty of any Omission or Commission that brings a Man into a State as if he had offended in nothing and fulfilled the Law in every thing as Mr. Truman describes Pardon does manifestly appear to be a farther Benefit or Blessing than Justification strictly taken What may be understood by it largely taken may be considered hereafter before I have done The Third PART BEfore I come to any Close of my Discourse there is a matter of Four Things to be proposed whether by way of Question or Objection it is indifferent as necessary for the Satisfaction of such as have the Reason Candour and Christian Humility to seek it The First is this The Scripture and those therefore that duly preach it does call upon all Men to believe and repent in order to their Justification and Salvation and when Faith and Repentance are required as Conditions of being justified how can that which is pre-requisite as a Condition be made or become the Form Formal Cause or Formal Reason of Justification This I put first because I believe here that nothing almost that a Scholar who hath got Aristotelian Terms in his Head putting his Physical Constructions on Divinity Points is like to be more gravell'd at than at this But it is nothing let Terms or Words be once look'd through for it is this is the very thing I affirm and stand upon that what God hath made the Condition of his Covenant and the Blessings thereof and so of our Justification before it is performed when perform'd does become the Formal Righteousness that justifies us God does by that Act of Imputation Instrumentally done by his Word make our Faith which is not in itself a Righteousness to become our Righteousness and as it becomes a Righteousness it is made the Formal Reason of our Justification There is the Carpenter's Work the Bricklayer's Work the Smith's Work goes to the Building a House There must be therefore Timber Bricks and Iron prepared and the preparing these are Conditions of the Building or Materials before but when the House is built they all put together are the House it self and as a House the Formal Cause Formal Reason or Form of it A Second Thing to be proposed is this Our Divines we know do ordinarily bring together Remission of Sin and the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness into the Matter of our justification and when the Assembly have given us a Definition comprizing the same Things I do in mine why should I offer another Unto this I will make that Answer as ought to content any honest Man that would have but such a one as he would be allowed himself to give and I say that I do readily give my Suffrage to the Assembly's Catechism to be learned and used above any I know and am not concern'd though a Learner of it be not so accurate in his Understanding as to see any Difference between my Definition and theirs when what is in mine is in theirs and what in theirs is in mine I am perswaded that a believed grosser Knowledge of the Principles of Religion is better for ordinary People than that which is more exact and I receive all that is in their Definition only with liberty of Explication In Justification I acknowledge a Forgiveness and an Imputation of Christ's Obedience but I do not acknowledge either as our Formal Righteousness I say Forgiveness is a Benefit we receive by it but it is not the Formal Reason of it and I acknowledge Christ's Righteousness imputed Sub genere causae efficientis per modum meriti and so received by Faith not in itself but in the Merit of it only And I give Notice that he who thinking more does say that Christ's Righteousness In fe is made ours Legally tho' Physically and Morally he disowns it that Man must make it to justifie us Sub ratione causae formalis when perhaps he does not know it which is an unadvised Position I look upon as that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of our former great Divines which gave the Rise to Antimonianism A Third Thing to be proposed is Our Protestants have their Mouths full of Christ's Righteousness imputed when the Scripture hath no such Expression and what hath not Authority from Scripture may be again refused Eadem facilitate says Hierom as it hath been received It is sit therefore this be a little examin'd into and there may be two Questions ask'd The one What is there in the thing at bottom as to the reality and truth of it The other And what then shall we say to it For the First That which is in reality in this Matter The Imputation of Christ's Righteousness is that Christ by the
Appointment of his Father and his own Good Will did undertake in our behalf to do and suffer what was required of us to suffer by the Law so far that the Honour of God in regard to his Law being saved and the Ends thereof secured we that were liable to Damnation might be delivered from it in the Way or Manner the Father and Son designed which is by that Act of Grace promulgated in the Gospel that upon our believing and repenting we shall be justified and so pardoned and have Life Everlasting And what then shall we say thereupon but that the very Righteousness of Christ In se did go into or may be said imputed unto the Impetration of this great Benefit for us but the Benefit only and not his Righteousness can be ours in the Application That we should be justified by Faith was obtained by Christ's Righteousness or Performance but it is our Faith not Christ's Performance is imputed to us for Righteousness in our Justification Christ's Righteousness is that for which not by which Causa propter quam not Per quam we have this Benefit that upon on believing we are justified The Application is our Work the Impetration Christ's the Imputation of what he did to us God's And there is no such thing can be as the making that formally ours by the Application * As for the Commutation of Persons which while some Divines as Dr. Owen do found in the Mystical Union instead of the Hypostatical between Christ and Believers they make I know not what of it I acknowledge such a one as is necessary to the Impetration of our Redemption but I understand none so as to go into the Applicacation Christ took on him our Flesh made Satisfaction in our stead and procured an Act of Grace or Pardon for all But there is no Commutation I know as to Particular Persons in the Point of Justification If Christ made an Exchange of his Righteousness with Peter for his Sins any otherwise than as to the Impetration of Pardon on Condition that concerns all alike then Christ's Righteousness must now be Peter's and James and John could never have it In Christ's uniting himself to us by his taking our Nature obeying suffering satisfying God's Justice I acknowledge a Commutation even such to wit that our Sins were so imputed to him as that he died for them and in our stead understanding the Phrases aright and his Righteousness so imputed as to be the Cause that upon our believing we enjoy the Benefit But in Christ's uniting us to him by giving his Spirit to work in us that Condition whereby we have our Right to the Benefit there is nothing done by him in Our stead nothing by us in His no new no other no farther Imputation The Fruit of his Purchase Pardon and Salvation by a Law of Grace cannot be His and if that that he communicates to us be not his how is there a Commutation Of this Sacrifice and Righteousness itself we are uncapable Of the Effects and Fruits as Pardon of Sin he is uncapable What he hath not he cannot communicate What he hath we cannot receive There is there can be no substitution of Person in our partaking the Benefits purchased as there was there must be in the purchasing them for us Pacif. p. 16. Then Pacif. p. 30 31 32. What I have said before about the Commutation of Persons that it is to be held in regard to the Impetration not Application of our Redemption I would offer over again likewise in regard to the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness I have said and said it over that this Phrase is not found in Scripture but I will acknowledge the thing in the true Sence of it which is this Christ Jesus did really obey the Law and suffer its Penalty for us in the Sence of in our place of stead To do a thing now in my stead is for another to do it so as to save me the doing it Christ's suffering and obeying was to save us that suffering and obeying In what respect I shew there And in the next Page I go on God looks not on us as if we our selves had obeyed or suffered either in his Person or he to have done it strictly in Ours but that he obeyed and suffered Loco nostro to free us from so Obeying there shewn and suffering as he himself did which is the making his Death and Obedience Ours only as to this Benefit Thus much being right and the Righteousness of Christ consisting in this Obedience and suffering thus in our room what now at last is the Imputation of it Why certainly the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness is and must be nothing else but God's accounting the Matter to be thus as it is Here is the Point that what Christ hath done is look'd upon is accepted as done in our behalf or the granting it to be so that upon this obeying and suffering of his in our place as the Meritorious Cause we shall be freed from the same as the Effect of it This is the only Fundamental Truth in the Phrase and this Imputation then of Christ's Righteousness which Man hath so phrased going into this Grant on God's part or Obtaining the Grant on Christ's part which precedes the Application it cannot go into the Application itself that follows after upon Performance of the Gospel-Terms so as to make Christ's Righteousness Ours any otherwise than in this Benefit only Besides this the fancying such Acts in God as the imputing Christ's Righteousness to every single Person upon his believing any otherwise than by that one Act of Grace now promulgated in the Gospel is not becoming the Divine Being There is there can be no new Act in God He is Actus purus his Will one I must not grow too subtile here only I must say there is his Will and the Effects of his Will and in those Effects there is an Order In that Order the Righteousness of Christ precedes the Impetration of all the Benefits we have by him as the Meritorious Cause of them The Impetration precedes the Application and the Application can be therefore but of the Effects thereof Not of this Righteousness I say itself In se but of the Benefits themselves we have by it To be more short That Commutation of Persons and Imputation of Christ's Righteousness which comes both in earnest to this one thing Man's Benefit upon the Account of Christ's Satisfaction howsoever the Thoughts thereof have amused so many Good Men when you have throughly considered them and made as much of them as ever you can it must all of it every Drop of it you can make go into that Act of Grace Salvation upon Gospel-Conditions which is already procured and passed Unto the Impetration then of our Redemption Christ's Righteousness was indeed imputed In se In the Application it can be imputed only in the Effect I have delivered my Conceptions more fully in my late Book Pacif. p. 30
'T is that is this Righteousness If Christ had not procured for us this New Law there could have been no Righteousness in the Earth for the Law of Innocency no Man can perform and therefore hath he by procuring this New Covenant brought in a Righteousness in the World and that which is the abiding Righteousness the Righteousness of this Covenant whereby all are saved that have or ever shall be saved Now when we have here a Righteousness which lies in the Performance of the Law of Grace purchased for us by Christ and wrought in us by the Spirit of Grace for the spirit we must know is not given to perform the Law of Works but this Law we do see what does belong to this Way of Grace which God hath chosen to save Man by This Way of Grace does contain in it the giving of Christ the Redemption we have by him our Reconciliation with God Pardon of Sin the Covenant itself and the Dispensation of the Spirit or his Grace for performing the Condition of it All this and more hang together so that when we say it is not by Works but by Grace that we are saved it is all one as to say it is not by Perfect Works but by an Evangelical Righteousness by Mercy by Pardon by Christ See what this Righteousness of God comes to in its right and full Definition Mid. Way of Just p. 57 58. I have two Pages to set it out more fuller in my Mid. Way of Just p. 57 58 and I have two Pages in my Pacif. p. 27 28 29 30. which should be read rather than here abridged The Design of God to save Man was to magnifie his Grace and therefore of two Ways to do it God chose this of Grace and not the Way of Works unto which yet was Man created and by which he should have lived if he had stood and it is such Works which Dr. Owen never came to consider unto which Grace is opposed by the Apostle To this End the Fall is permitted Redemption by Christ appointed This Redemption is double from Sin and from Condemnation Christ redeems us from Death by the Sacrifice of himself upon which an Act of Grace passes that gives Pardon and Life upon Condition and the Condition is Repentance toward God and Faith toward Jesus Christ. Redemption from Sin is by the Grace of God's Spirit working in us this Repentance and Faith in order to our Justification and is called by our Divines Effectual Vocation It is so far therefore from Truth to exclude Evangelical Works from any Interest in our Justification that they are ordained of God in order to it God hath linked his Golden Chain so that Election does enter our Calling for Effectual Calling is Actual Election and our Effectual Calling does enter our Justification for the Works of it Faith Repentance New Obedience are imputed to us for that Righteousness that justifies us and our Justification and inchoate Righteousness does enter and is the Infancy of Glory From hence the Justification of a Sinner by the Righteousness of God may come under a double Consideration It may be consider'd Precisely in itself or Complexly with its Antecedents and Consequents That which is Antecedent to it is Redemption and that from Damnation as that from Sin both being wrought without our doing any thing not so much says Ruiz as to give an Active Occasion towards it but wholly of Grace It is like that in regard to the Antecedents the Apostle speaks of the Freeness of our Justification so as he does Rom. 3.24 and the like places when otherwise he lets us know that without Conversion or a Call of Turning from Sin unto God no Man can be justified and saved Unto whom I send thee to turn them from Darkness to Light from the Power of Satan unto God that they may receive Forgiveness of Sins Acts 27.18 There is therefore the Antecedents the Constituents and Subsequents of this Righteousness of God and our Justification by it Redemption and Calling are Antecedents The Work of that Calling which is the Performance of the Condition and the Imputation of it for Righteousness the one being as it were the Matter and the other giving the Form to it are the Constituents Actual or Absolute Pardon and Life the Subsequents or Benefits of it This Distinction I would not omit before I go off because I would have none so stiff in theri own Opinions much less froward but that they may yield to others also something in theirs If Austin will place Justification in the Infusion of Grace I will grant it him as Antecedent to it If Mr. Wotton will place it in Pardon I will grant it him as Consequent to it or as the Special Benefit of it If the Assembly will place it in Pardon and the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness if they mean it Per modum Meriti and not In se I will grant it If Mr. Baxter will place it in a Personal Righteousness subservient to the Righteousness of Christ not formally made Ours but in the Effects that is as much as to say required in order to our having Impunity and Life as Comprehensive of all its Effects or Benefits I will grant it him as Constituent of it If Dr. Owen will be content tho' others differ from him so long as Remission of Sin Acceptance with God Right to Life are acknowledged all to be owing to the Righteousness of Christ and not the Merit of our Works I kiss Dr. Owen's Hand also Let this Righteousness of God for Justification of Life be taken in its Complex Consideration and we may all joyn in some Agreement in it tho' where it is Precisely taken every own will stand for his own Opinion I was long before I could come to this God accounting a Man righteous by the Law of Grace as having performed the Condition I always thought to be Justification and this Mr. Baxter granted me Pardon then I counted the Effect of this and therefore different from it besides that the Word methoughts would not allow them to be the same Pardon of Sin is not signified by the Word Justification in any place of Scritpure says Dr. Owen p. 173. The Word is never found so used either in the Hebrew or Greek Writers Sacred or Profane nor in our common Speech says Gattaker on Isa 5.23 who was in this yet a more competent Judge How these two Things being different as the Cause and Effect should enter the same Definition and be made one I could not devise or admit 'till I was taught by one Word in a Letter I receiv'd from Mr. Baxter Pardon says he is not that Justifications The Word That instructed me that Justification being a Forensical Term opposed to Accusation According to the Accusation such he counted Justification There are now two Charges as most say against the Sinner a Charge of the Law and a Charge of the Gospel The Charge of the Law is that we have broke