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is never used in scripture in a physical, but in a forenfic fenfe; and stands opposed, not to a state of impurity, or unholiness, but to a state of condemnation.

4. Justification is an act of God's free grace, whereby he clears his people from fin, difcharges them from condemnation, and reckons and accounts them righteous for the fake of Chrift's righteousness, which he has accepted of, and imputes unto them. Some very excellent divines have distinguished juftification into active and paffive'. Active juftification is God's act, it is God that justifies; paffive justification is the fame act, terminating on the confcience of the believer; active juftification is strictly and properly justification, paffive juftification is improperly so; active juftification precedes faith, paffive justification is by faith.

Again, justification may be confidered either in foro Dei, and fo it is an eternal, immanent act in God; or in foro confcientia, and so it is declarative to and upon the confcience of the believer; or in foro mundi, and fo it will be notified to men and angels at the general judgment.

Again, let it be farther obferved, that the fcriptures fometimes speak of the juftification of God's people, either of their perfons, or faith, or caufe, before men, and then it is afcribed to their works; and, at other times, of their perfons before God, which is faid to be without works; it is now, not of the former, but of the latter our text fpeaks, and which I am confidering; and shall now proceed,

II. To enquire into the author, or efficient cause of justification, who is the great God of heaven and earth: It is God that juftifies; which may well be wondered at, when it is confidered that he is the fupreme Judge of all, who will do right; that his law is the rule by which he acts in this affair; that this law is broken by the fin of man; that fin, which is a breach of the law, is especially committed against him, and is hateful to him; that he is a God that will not admit of an imperfect righteousness, in the room of a perfect one; and that he has power to condemn, and reason sufficient to do it; when, I fay, these things are confidered, it is amazing that this God should justify. For the farther illuftration of this head, I shall endeavour to fhew the concern that all the three Persons, Father, Son, and Spirit, have in the juftification of the elect.

Ifai. v. 23. Rom. v. 16, 18. and viii. 33, 34.

1. God

See Deut. xxv. I.. Prov. xvii. 1 Maccov. Theolog. Diftin&t. c. 13. §. 1, 2. & Theolog. Polem c. 15 Quæft. 2. & Theolog. Quæft. loc, 31. & пewτor Eudos Arminian. c. 10. & Loc. Commun. c. 69. Hoornbeeck. Summ. Controverf. 1. 10. p. 705. Rhaetorfort. Exercitat. Apologet. exerc. 1. c. 2. §. 20. Wolleb. Chriftian. Theolog. I. 1. c. 30. Effenii Syftem. Theolog tom. II. difp. 8. ad tit. 15.

Rom. viii. 34.

1. God the Father is the contriver of the scheme and method of our justification; he was in Chrift, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trefpaffes," he drew the model and platform of it, which is Nodus Deo vindice dignus. It would have remained a puzzling question to men and angels, How should man be just with God? had not his grace employed his wisdom to find out a ransom, whereby he has delivered his people from going down to the pit of corruption; which ransom is no other than his own Son, whom he fent, in the fulness of time, to execute the fcheme he had fo wifely formed in his eternal mind; which he did by finishing transgression, making an end of fin, making reconciliation for iniquity, and bringing in an everlasting righteousness; which righteousness, being wrought out by Christ, God was well pleased with, because hereby his law was magnified and made honourable; and, having graciously accepted of it, he imputes it freely to all his people, and reckons them righteous on the account of it.

2. God the Son, as God, is the co-efficient cause of it, with his Father. As he has equal power with him to forgive fin, he also has to acquit, discharge, and justify from it. As Mediator, he is the Head and Representative; in whom all the feed of Ifracl are justified; as fuch, he has wrought out a righteousness, answerable to the demands of the law, by which they are juftified; and is the Author and Finisher of that faith, which looks unto, lays hold on, and apprehends that righteousness for justification.

3. God the Holy Ghoft convinces men of the weakness, imperfection, and infufficiency of their own righteousness to justify them before God; he brings near, and fets before them, the righteoufnefs of Chrift, and works faith in them to lay hold on it, and receive it; he intimates to their confciences the juftifying fentence of God, on the account of Chrift's righteousness, and bears a teftimony to and with their spirits, that they are justified perfons; and hence the faints are faid to be justified in the name of the Lord Jefus, and by the Spirit of our God"; but this teftimony of the Spirit is not fo properly juftification in itself, as an actual perception of it, before granted, by a kind of a reflex act of faith, as Dr Ames expreffes it". Now this is the part which Father, Son, and Spirit, feverally bear in juftification: the Father has contrived it, the Son has procured it, and the Spirit applies it. I go on,

III. To confider the matter of juftification, or what that is for the fake of which God's elect are justified. And,

m 1 Cor. vi. 11.

1. Man's 1 2 Cor. v. 19. "In hoc teftimonio Spiritus non tam proprie ipfa juftificatio confiftit, quam actualis antea conceffa perceptio, per actum fidei quafi reflexum, Amef. Medulla Theolog. 1. 1. c. 27. §. 9.

1. Man's obedience to the law of works, is not the matter of his juftification, or that for the fake of which he is justified, for this is imperfect, and therefore not justifying; and was man's obedience his justifying righteousness, his juftification would be by works, and not by grace; which is contrary to the whole ftream and current of fcripture. Besides, if righteousness is by the law, then Chrift is dead in vain, and his righteousness is needlefs and useless; which must highly reflect both on the grace and wifdom of God.

2. Nor is man's obedience to the gospel, as to a new and milder law, his justifying righteousness before God. The scheme of fome, if I understand it right, is this; That Jefus Chrift has procured a relaxation of the old law, and has introduced a new law, a remedial law, a law of milder terms; which new law is the gospel, and its terms, faith, repentance, and new obedience; which, though imperfect, yet being fincere, will be accepted of by God, in the room of a perfect righteoufnefs. But the whole fcheme is entirely false; the law is not relaxed, nor any of its feverities abated; its power is not infringed, it has the fame commanding and condemning power it ever had over those that are under it; nor is the gofpel a law, it is a pure declaration of grace and falvation by Chrift; it has no commands, but all promifes; there is nothing in it that looks like a law; and, if faith and repentance were the terms of it, and required by it, as conditions of mens acceptance with God, it would not be a remedial law, a law of milder terms; for it was much easier for Adam, in a state of innocence, to have kept the whole law, than for man, in his fallen state, to repent and believe in Chrift of himself; befides, nothing can more reflect upon the juftice of God than to say that he will accept of an imperfect righteoufnefs in the room of a perfect one: he who is the Judge of all the earth, will do right; and he, whose judgment is according to truth, will never call or account that a righteoufness which is not one.

3. Nor is a profeffion of religion, even of the best, a matter of our justification. Men may have a form of godliness, and deny the power of it, have a name to live, and yet be dead, appear outwardly righteous to men, and yet be inwardly full of all manner of impurity; they may fubmit to all Chrift's ordinances, be baptized in his name, fit down at his table, and conftantly attend on his word, and yet be far from righteoufnefs, their fear towards God being only taught by the precept of men; yea, fuppofing they were fincere in all this, they could not be juftified by it. Sincerity, in any religion, even in the best religion, is not our juftifying righteoufnefs: there may be fincere Mahometans, fincere Papifts, and fincere Pagans, as well as fincere believers in Christ; one man may be a fincere perfecutor of the true religion, as well as

another

another may be a fincere profeffor of it. Our Lord told his difciples, that the time would come, when fome men fhould think they did God fervice in killing them; and it is certain the apostle Paul, before his conversion, thought with himself, that he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jefus of Nazareth. But taking fincerity in the best sense, for a grace of the Spirit of God, which indeed, runs through, and accompanies all other graces, and makes our faith to be unfeigned, our love to be without diffimulation, and our hope without hypocrify; I fay, taking it in this fenfe, it belongs to fanctification, and not to juftification; which are two diftin&t things, and not to be confounded; for the whole real work of fanctification is neither the whole or a part of our juftifying righteoufnefs; and if the whole work is not, then not a part of it; and if not a part of it, then,

4. The rò credere, or act of believing, which is a part of fanctification, is not imputed to us for juftification, as Arminius and his followers have afferted; endeavouring to establish this notion from fome paffages in Rom. iv. 3, 5, 9. where faith is faid to be counted for righteoufnefs; particularly the faith of Abraham; by which the apoftle means not the act, but the object of faith, even the righteoufnefs of Chrift, which God, in ver. 6. is faid to impute without works. That this is his fenfe is manifeft, from this one fingle confideration: the very fame it, which was imputed to Abraham for righteoufnefs, is imputed to all those who believe on him, that raised up Jefus our Lord from the dead, ver. 22-24. Now fuppofing that Abraham's faith was reckoned and imputed to him for a juftifying righteousness, it cannot be reasonably thought that it fhould be imputed alfo for righteousness to all that believe: befides, it ought to be obferved, that the apoftle does not fay that this was imputed, arri dixaocúrns, instead of righteousness; but di unto righteousness, and intends no more here than what the apostle elsewhere fays, that with the heart man believes unto righteoufnefs; that is, with his heart, or heartily, he believes in Chrift for righteousness; which righteoufness, and not faith, is imputed to him for juftification; for faith, as it is our act, is our own; hence we read of his faith, and my faith, and thy faith in fcripture'; but the righteousness by which we are justified is the righteousness of another, and therefore not faith. Moreover, faith, as an act of ours, is a duty; for whatsoever we do, in a religious way, we do but what is our John xvia 2. a Armin, Declar. fent. ad Ord. p. 102. & Refponf. ad 31. Artic. p. 138. Epiftol. ad Hippolyt. Articul. Perpend p. 786. Remonstr. Confeff. c 10. §. 2. & c. 18. §. 2. Bertii Epift. difcept. contra Lubbert. p. 6, 81. Worstii Scholia contra Lubbert. p. 177. Hab. ii. 5. James ii. 18.

VOL. III.

P Acts xxvi. 9.

Rom. x. 10.

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duty to do; and, if it is a duty, it belongs to the law; for, as all the declarations and promises of grace belong to the gofpel, fo all duties belong to the law; and if faith belongs to the law, as a duty, it is a work of it, and therefore by it we cannot be justified; for by the deeds of the law shall no flesh living be justified. Befides, faith is imperfect, it has many deficiencies; and, was it perfect, it is but a part of the law, though one of the weightier parts of it; and God, whofe judgment is according to truth, will never reckon or account a partial conformity to the law a compleat righteousness. Add to this, that faith and righteoufnefs are manifeftly distinguished'; the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; it is unto all, and upon all them that believe. Something else, and not faith, is represented as our justifying righteousness; faith is not the blood, nor obedience of Christ, and yet by these we are said to be justified, or made righteous". We are, indeed, said to be justified by faith, but not by faith, as an act of ours, for then we should be justified by works; nor by faith, as a grace of the Spirit, for this would be to confound fanctification and juftification; but we are justified by faith objectively, as it looks to, receives, apprehends, and embraces Chrift's righteousness for justification. And let it be observed, that though we are faid to be justified by faith, yet faith is never said to justify us. And here give me leave to correct a vulgar, though but a verbal mistake, in calling faith, justifying faith. I am well fatisfied found divines have used this phrafe without any ill meaning; and no lefs a person than the great Dr Goodwin, whofe works I much value and esteem, has entitled one of his treatifes, Of the Object and Acts of Juftifying Faith: But why it should be called juftifying faith, any more than adopting or pardoning faith, I fee not; fince it has just the fame concern in adoption and pardon, as it has in juftification. Are we faid to be justified by faith, or, by faith, to receive the righteousness of Christ for juftification? We are alfo faid, by faith, to receive the remiffion of fins, and to be the children of God, by faith, in Chrift Jefus ". Befides, what do we, or can we fay more of the righteoufness of Chrift, than that it is a juftifying one? In one word, it is God, and not faith, that juftifies. But,

5. The matter of our juftification, or that for the fake of which we are juftified, is the righteousness of the Lord Jefus Chrift; by which I mean not his effential righteoufnefs, as God; nor his righteousness and fidelity to him, that appointed him, in the discharge of his mediatorial office; nor do I take in any of his actions performed by him in heaven, as Jefus Chrift the righteous; only thofe which he wrought in his ftate of humiliation here on earth; and not all these neither, for his extraordinary works and miracles must be ex

cluded;

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