TWO SERMONS. One on the Subject of Justification, The Other on The Imputed Righteousness, and Imputation of Faith to Righteousness, by which we are Justified. Preached Occasionally at the Merchants-Lecture in Pin-makers-Hall in Broad-street. And Printed at their Desire. By Walter Cross, M. A.  
LONDON, Printed by and for John Astwood, at his Printing-House behind St. Christophers-Church in Thred-needle-street, the backside of the Royal Exchange. 1695.   

SERMON I.  ROM. iv 5. 
But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly—  
THese words are to be considered both relatively and absolutely, that we may in order comprehend their full sense and importance. The relation they bear to the Apostle's scope and design, is that of a proof and confirmation of the grand Doctrine of the Gospel, which is, That no man is, nor can be justified by his own Works or Righteousness, the only way of being justified is by the Righteousness of God. The Apostle on very good ground supposes such an opposition and disjunction between them two as admits no medium, for we cannot be justified without a Righteousness; and that Righteousness must be either our own or another's, God's or Man's. It is the Negative branch of the Doctrine the Apostle doth earnestly contend for in this 4th. Chap. without any appearance of Carnality, but disputes with strenuous dint of Argument, and closely connected Topics with the terms of his proposed Doctrine, whereof this in the Text is one; either an immediate Argument thus, He that worketh not, or is ungodly, cannot be justified by his own Works, but he who is justified by Grace is one that worketh not, or is ungodly, Erg. Or rather a Confirmation of an immediate Argument before brought, thus, Maj. He that is justified by Faith, is not justified by Works. Min. But Abraham was justified by Faith. Erg. Abraham was not justified by Works.  
The Assumption being confirmed from Scriptures Testimony, Gen. 15. he proceeds to prove the grand Proposition thus, Maj. He to whom righteousness is imputed of Grace, cannot be justified by Works. Min. But to him that is justified by Faith, righteousness is imputed of Grace. Erg. He that is justified by Faith, cannot be justified by Works.  
The assumption is frequently asserted in Scripture, v. 16. It is of Faith, that it might be by Grace. The grand Proposition he supposes evident from the opposition between Grace and Debt in v. 4. for when a person is dealt with on the account of Works, i. e. any thing in him, or done by him, it is debt, his due, I mean the reward; but when a Man is dealt with of Grace, the reward is proportioned to the Favour and  of the Donor or Judge; the Goodness of the Judge on the Bench, and the arraigned Person at the Bar, are very opposite, therefore to be treated according to this opposite goodness, must be an opposite treatment.  
This opposition or repugnancy in v. 5. he illustrates and confirms thus, Maj. Where the subjects, causes, effects, or manner of efficiency, are opposite, there the things themselves are opposite. Min. But in Justification by Works and Faith, of grace, and of due, the subjects, causes, etc. are opposite. Erg. The Nature of the Justifications are opposite.  
The grand Proposition is a Maxim in Logic, or Natural Light, taken for granted. The assumption is illustrated and confirmed in these four Verses. 1. The Subjects, to wit, a godly and an ungodly Man, a righteous and an unrighteous, a Worker and a Non-worker. 2. The Causes, the grace, favour and goodwill of the Governor, and the merit, labour, obedience and righteousness of the Subject. 3. The immediate effect of this Freegrace, or way of its efficiency, which differs from the Method of Justice, measuring its distribution by Law; for the former imputes a Righteousness, or as in Ch. 5. gives a Righteousness, viz. in a way of account and reckoning, that by virtue thereof, and its satisfaction to the Government, it may consist with governing goodness to bless the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputes righteousness without works. The latter finds an inherent righteousness in the person, and therefore his Justification is only an Authoritative declaration of what he is, a surrender of the Honour that is his due; and he proves this by David's Testimony, asserting the former Justification to be a Pardon or Forgiveness: As if he had said, It's called a Justification, because that Pardon is the effect of an Imputed Righteousness. Freegrace first gives by way of Account an Interest in Christ's Righteousness, and conveys the Right or Interest through Faith. Secondly, Pardons on the account of that Righteousness, which gives just ground for the denomination of Justification, and this Name is entertained as the proper Name for our Pardon in the Gospel, that it may be a constant Memorial of our Obligation to Christ for our Pardon, and of the difficulty that there was to render a Pardon consistent with the Law and Honour of the Lawmaker and Governor. One chief end of this added Testimony of David's to the Example and Pattern of Abraham, is to prove that we are not justified by Works, from the Nature of Gospel-Justification, viz. David says it's a Pardon; tho' it's a Justification in respect to Christ's Righteousness, it's a Forgiveness with respect to our own Unrighteousness. This proves the Subject also of Gospel Justification to be ungodly, for we need and receive a Pardon, not as righteous or godly, but ungodly: And the reason why the Apostle gives the sense of David's words to be the Imputing of a Righteousness, is because it was inconsistent with a necessary just Law, and a just Governor and Judge, who cannot do violence to a righteous Law, to pardon or not to impute sin, until there be first a Righteousness imputed; and by showing this to be the sense of it, he thereby proves that our Justification is of Grace, because Free grace is the only cause of the Imputation of that Righteousness. It is not for Christ's sake that his righteousness is imputed, for that were to say, that the same thing was for the sake of itself, his Merit for his Merits-sake, and Righteousness for his Righteousness-sake: But as Christ is the Freegrace of God's Gift, so is his Righteousness, without any interveening Merits; and that has made me think, the influence of Christ's Merit, to use the accustomed Phrase, terminates on the Law, or Legal constitution, not on the Divine Nature. God is the God, Author and Owner of all Grace, nothing has changed his mind into a more gracious temper, and hence the Imputation of righteousness is only ascribed to Grace, but Justification is ascribed to Grace, not immediately as imputation is, but at second hand: Justified by his Grace through the Redemption, Ch. 3.24. Hence something may be said for an Imputation of Righteousness from Eternity, tho' not for Justification from Eternity; and may be this is the reason why another Phrase is made use of for the transitory, temporary Act, viz. Faith imputed to righteousness; for that denotes God's Act as Judge, in passing the absolving Sentence, i. e. through the Gift of Faith he conveys a right to that Righteousness, which from Eternity was assigned in the Book of Life to all that shall ever enjoy its blessed Fruits. Thus much for the coherent and relative sense of the words, as they are subservient and useful to prove that we are not justified by Works.  
I shall now consider them absolutely: And I must say this of them so considered, that they are as pure Gospel-Language-Expressions, as full of encouragement to Sinners, and comfort to Penitents, as any I know in Scripture. Indeed they are not alone, for the same Apostle says Historically of himself, what he asserts elenctically here of Freegrace, 1 Tim. 1.15. viz. That he was a Blasphemer, a Persecutor, and injurious Person, when abundant grace, together with Faith and Love prevented him, i. e. justifying and sanctifying grace; the one in Faith and Love, the other in the abundant grace conveyed through them; and v. 16. he shows, this was no singular favour, for Christ made a pattern of him to them who should hereafter believe; as Artists hang out a piece of their Workmanship to bring in Customers, so Christ hangs up Paul for a sign, that all who hear the Gospel may count Christ (who came to save sinners) worthy of Acceptation, by all who are sinners. The Language of St. Paul's Conversion is the same with that of his Doctrine: Grace finds us sinners, and makes us righteous, and then blessed. Neither is Paul the only Pattern; Levi is another, Mat. 2.14. Sitting at the receipt of Custom, serving a Tyrannical Government in its heavy Taxes; Christ calls him powerfully and effectually into the service and glory of his Kingdom, and makes an Offer to the rest of the Publicans and Sinners; That he came not to call the righteous, (who did repent) but sinners to repentance: His Office was to be a Physician to the sick: And Zacheus a chief Commissioner is a third, who by false Methods had aggravated the Burden of Tribute, and robbed honest subjects, under the Notion of Caesar's due; yet Christ tells him, salvation is come to his house: For that was his constant Employ, To seek and to save that which was lost: But here we have it doctrinally, what is there historically, here universally asserted, what is there illustrated by Examples and Parables; here in strict Logical Terms, what is there under Rhetorical Flourishes, that when a man is ungodly and without works, than Faith is imputed for righteousness.  
Note, I shall divide them in these two parts: 1st. As they set forth the condition of a sinner, antecedent to justification. 2ly. In what method God brings them from that condition into blessedness through an Imputation of Righteousness, and imputation of Faith to Righteousness.  
The First Part affords us this Doctrine.  Doct. That the Object of Justification, antecedently to it, is a person without works of righteousness, an ungodly man. 
When in our blood he bids us live, the day of our Enmity was the time of his Love, the Condition of our Adamical Nakedness was that he cast the skirt of his beautiful Garments over; when aliens, he entered into a Covenant of Grace with us, ordered for the salvation of sinners; when in our filthiness, he puts his Comeliness on us, Ezek. 16. The plain Gospel sense of these Prophetical Figures is, To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.  
There are three Limitations put on this Text, by Inteepreters of differing Opinions, from what is the old and common road of them called Protestants, who usually distinguish the case thus, as Altingius considered in himself, he is ungodly and unrighteous, but considered in Christ he is righteous; or Dr. Tuckney, finds him unrighteous, but leaves him not so.  
1. Some distinguish as to time thus, was ungodly, not is; they reckon some little time before for the exercise of Faith and Repentance, before he can be justified. A Priority of Order between the Gift of Faith and Justification I willingly grant, but a priority of time is pregnant with Absurdities: The former doth not serve their turn, who make the Exercise of faith and repentance Conditions of justification; for it requires no time; as the Sun is in no time before its Beams, nor the Ring before the relation of Man and Wife: Relations result immediately from their foundations, but the mind of Man, tho' it needs less time for the nimble succesion of its swift thoughts, yet time it doth require. (2.) Man must be regenerate, effectually called, before faith and repentance, for the tree must be good before the fruit: Now its repugnant, to think one regenerate, a son of God, can be in a state of Condemnation; and it's as inconsistent, to think that any are out of a state of Condemnation before a pardon. But to suppose any time between regeneration and forgiveness, for the exercise of faith and repentance, is to suppose a time when we are neither in a state of Condemnation or Justification. (3.) There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ: Now we are united to Christ by a double Cement, the Spirit working faith, and faith therefore where that Cement is there is no condemnation but pardon. (4.) The Scripture says, We were reconciled when enemies, Rom. 5.10. The difficulty here is, if this be meant the price for peace paid, or the application of it in justification, v. 9 shows the latter; being now justified by his blood, either we are justified at Christ's death, which the party denies, or else we are enemies when justified; and indeed reconciliation signifies a mutual peace, the hatred removed on on side by pardon, and on the other by regeneration; a new temper of Mind. It is true. Col. 1.21. it is said, Who sometime were enemies, but now are reconciled; yet that supposes the same time to continue until the reconciliation, which Rom. 5.9. says was the time of Justification. A (5th.) Argument is from the oneness of time, by Scripture Connexion between regeneration and justification, Col. 2.13. You hath he quickened, together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 2 Pet. 1.3. We are called to glory and virtue at once, and 1 Pet. 1.3. are begotten again unto an inheritance incorruptible, Tit. 3.5, 7. 2 Cor. 6. ult. A (6th.) Argument is from Rom. 6. Where the Apostles solution to the objection of Libertines, is, from the near connection between justifying and sanctifying grace. (7.) I see nothing in the context to favour this distinction, but é contra would overturn the Arguments and Doctrine too.  
A 2d. Limitation is, from distinction of Laws; they own he is an ungodly man, a Non worker, as to the righteousness of the Law, strictly so called, (which requires perfect, perpetual and personal obedience) who is the Object of Evangelical Justification. But they think there is a necessity of a righteousness to another, new, distinct Law; for as Legal Justification requires Legal Righteousness, Evangelical Justification requires Evangelical Righteousness, i. e. Faith and Repentance, in sincerity and perseverance: And this last qualification comes in, lest they should be under a necessity to hold a man pardoned one time of his Life, and yet be afterward condemned thorough after back-sliding and falling from Grace. Some of them hold final falling away, and so an once justified man may be eternally damned: Others total, but not final, and so may be in a state of Condemnation and Justification alternatively a hundred times: But a third, to prevent this Absurdity, adds perseverance, by which a man is excluded from justification until his last breath, which excludes the Doctrine of Assurance during life, and pardon too, which is a strangely new Doctrine; yet I have heard some more cautious persons say, they think there are some degrees of Grace, at the attainment of which they escape that danger; may be that is it they allot for the time of justification. This Limitation seems unacceptable to me on these grounds,  
1. This Law countenances iniquity, indulges transgressions; for since the first Law is holy, just and good, what Law requires less, is so far unholy, unjust, bad; and shall we suppose an holy God, that is of purer eyes than to connive at iniquity, to establish iniquity by a Law? was our corrupt natures, or imperfectly renewed to his image, the Original to this Law? as his own Nature gave birth to the first, it seems reasonable to say that God accepts imperfect obedience on his account who performed perfect obedience in our stead as surety; but that the office of the Mediator should be to obtain of God to lay by that glorious manifestation of his Holiness, and change that perfect Law into a Council and Directory, and to yield so far to us, as to take a penny of the pound of obedience from broken debtors, seems to me pregnant of difficulties and absurdities. We deny our Obedience comes to be accepted as the obedience the Law requires, or under the Notion Adam's righteousness was accepted, viz. that which gave right to Indemnity and Life, but is accepted as the way to the Kingdom, and preparation for the possession of a place in these mansions, where all the inhabitants are holy: It is the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ alone, by which that Law is fulfilled; he is the end of the Law for righteousness, and his righteousness gives right to remission and blessedness.  
2ly. I am informed, this Notion of the Evangelical Law was the principal error of the Antinomians; for they said, since Faith and Repentance was all that was necessary to salvation, what was the need of any other Law? Alas, it is a sad mistake; for the Moral Law is the rule of true Repentance: Let him that stole, steal no more; that hath broke the first, second, or third Command, etc. aught to do so no more; that is true Repentance, New Obedience: The Law that did forbid stealing once, forbids stealing always, else it were not perfect. Indeed the Gospel has such an influence on this Law, and our obedience to it, that it is a new Law to what it was; but that ever God should lay that by, and make another, or make any that requires not perfection, is to me unconceivable: If any duty belongs to this New Law, it's patience, and God commands that it be perfect; Let patience have its perfect work: Or, for the same God to have two Laws, so contrary, that we may condemned by one, and justified by another.  
3ly. As it introduces Antinomianism, so a christianized Pharisaism, which was the error the Apostle is refuting: He is not disputing against Pagans, who denied the Messiah, or owned many Daemons, 1 Cor. 8.6. To us there is but one God the Father, of whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things: Nor against the Jews, who denied he was come in the flesh; for he tells them, their Faith was famous through the World, Rom. 1.8. But against some that believed, and pleaded the necessity of Circumcision, Rom. 3.28. That pleaded, We were justified by Faith and Works; for the Thesis, shows the Antagonists Opinion, which is, we are justified by faith, without the deeds of the Law, and Rom. 9.23. They sought after a righteousness, as if it were by the works of the Law, i. e. by the works of the Law in some sense and measure; this may be more evident by considering the Jews Doctrine about the way of Salvation, and add to it the belief of a Messiah come, and we may find the opinions too much alike: They reckoned that there were three ranks of Men, with respect to Heaven; the lowest were sinners; of Publicans and Sinners we read frequently; the highest were perfect men, and that they thought hardly attainable it seems, Mat. 19.21. That was the young man's doubt he brought to Christ; If thou wouldst be perfect, sell all thou hast, and follow me; in me the Laws perfection is to be obtained, thou must entirely be denied to all things else; the middle sort was called Beninim, Middle-way-men, Men of sincerity, that should go to eternal Life, either by a praeponderation of good, or repentance of evil: Hence, say they, the Life of man in the Precepts is according to his intention, who performs one of the least Precepts, for love of the Precept, shall merit everlasting life, Cant. 5.2. Open to me, my Sister, my Love; i. e. Open to me one crevice of Repentance, and I will open to thee the wide gates of Glory, Zach. 9.1. The Land of Hadrach, i. e. Emanuel's Land, who leads men to God by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the way of repentance. The gates of Prayer are shut sometimes, but never the gate of Repentance: If Israel would repent one day, the world would be redeemed, and the Messiah would come. But they did not think these Boninim went strait to Heaven; No, Abraham, and all the Prophets went to Hell in their Opinion; though the best went through the fire like a Salamander, it's only the Messiah can deliver from that. Herein then seems their Error to consist, that the Messiah supplied the want of perfection, so no need of going to Hell for sincere ones; this the Apostle, Gal. 1. calls a perverting of the Gospel, a composing of another method of Salvation, a counterfeit Gospel, a corrupting of the pure method of Grace with mixture and allay of works.  
4ly. It supposes two Justifications, Baxter against Cartwright, p. 11. It is one thing to be accused of treason, and another thing to be accused of Non-performance of the condition on which remission for treason is promised; an absolution from the first makes the one justification and absolution, from the latter the Gospel Justification. Resp. By this Doctrine the neglect of Faith and Repentance is not Treason. 2. That the justification by Christ's righteousness is not complete. 3. That we must be justified, before we can have an interest in Christ's Righteousness, and so we have Faith and Repentance without an interest in Christ, for antecedent to an interest in him; and we cannot be evangelically justified until our Faith and Repentance be sincere, and persevere, so no interest in him till death. The Scholastic Pit●arne, Provost of the Old College of St. Andrews, weeps over this Opinion, and its Reverend Author, thus, p. 285. O Reverend Baxter, for what end, or to what good hast thou wrote so many Volumes, for thy conditional justification by Faith and Obedience? to how many contentions hast thou given occasion? how many precious hours hast thou lost to thyself and thy Reverend Brethren? into an Abyss of how many Anti-Gospel Errors are they now sunk, who glory in thee as their Guide and Patron? who after they have once left the way of Truth, scarce know where to stop, and yet thou still tellest the world, all thy disputes are about the wool of a dog, for thou differest only in words and names from thy Brethren.  
5ly. The Context and Scope is the best rule of interpreting this text, whether righteous by one Law, and unrighteous by another, or not; for Chapter 3. tells us, he is a Non-worker as to all works, that any Oracles of the Old Testament did discover to be duty; for v. 2. this was the Jews advantage, that unto them were committed the Oracles of God, about which these two things are certain, that these Oracles were the Old Testament, and that the Old Testament contained the same way of justification the New doth; v. 19 He adds, whatever the Law says, it says to them that are under the Law: v. 10. These Oracles say, There is none righteous, No, not one: v. 19 All the World is guilty, before God every mouth stopped: The Argument runs thus, The Old Testament contained all Laws, wherein a sinner's justification was concerned; but as to all these Laws, all men were found Non-workers, and ungodly, therefore there is no place for distinction of Laws and Righteousness in this place, that inheres in us. 2ly. Abraham's Condition, antecedent to his effectual call, instructs us, that the distinction of Righteousness to be admitted in this place, is that of our own and another's, made ours by imputation; not of our own, with respect to different Laws; for Josh. 24. Abraham was an idolater, inconsistent with faith and repentance, or Gospel-righteousness, and yet Isa. 41. He is called a righteous man, and the friend of God; this must be through Christ's righteousness imputed, not his own: Who called the righteous man from the east, he was righteous in Chaldea. 3ly. Rom. 5.9, 10. When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son: The Argument is thus, If we are reconciled when enemies, we are justified when guilty, I mean actively and antecedently; but the Apostle affirms the former: The Connexion is evident, for they are but different Metaphors of the same case, the one representing it as the happy conclusion of a fair Trial at Law, the other as a Quarrel more friendly and privately composed; the one represents it as a public crime pardoned, on a satisfaction and mediation, the other as a misunderstanding, made up by an arbitration; the one expresses the remission of the guilt, but the other the removal of enmity, to a cordial renewed Peace and Love on both sides. Reconciliation comprehends Justification and Sanctification too; Two cannot walk together, except they be agreed. This is further confirmed from v. 9 where by Reconciliation is understood and expressed Justification, the former is described by the latter, and this justification, v. 1. said to be that which is by faith. Dr. Hammond to shun the dint of this Argument, grants in this place a justification on Christ's Death, but v. 8, and 9 the one is distinguished from the other by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, yet and now, i. e. Then he died for us, now we are justified. 4ly. We may take one step further into the Context, Rom. 6.1, 2, 6, 7. where the Apostle proposes an apparent Objection, but impertinent, if that were the case, no justification until sincerity, and perseverance in faith and repentance: Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? and if their Mind and the Apostles had been one, he had answered like them, tho' Legal Obedience is not necessary to make us vessels of Grace, Gospel Righteousness is; but his Solution is founded on the necessary connexion between justifying and sanctifying grace, being given at once both together: How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein, v. 2. This supposes a mortal stroke given to the body of sin in the ungodly man when justified, v. 7. He that is dead is justified from sin; so is the word in the Original; and Gal. 5. They that are in Christ Jesus, have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts. Thus Dr. Tuckney, God's justifying act finds us ungodly, but doth not leave us so; he justifies the ungodly, but the ungodly are not justified; and this obviates an Argument that is brought out of the text to confirm this Opinion; for, say they, how can he be ungodly that has faith? its true, he cannot, but Faith may be given to him that is so.  
The 3d. Objection is this, he may be a Non-worker as to true gracious works, the effects of a regenerate state, but not a Non-worker as to preparatory works, that may make us meet and fit for it: Or, according to the old terms, without meriting works, but not congruous works. It is necessary to give some Characters of these, before any thing be said against them, or rather against their necessary antecedency to justification; for I doubt not, pardoning grace finds many so endued. The Original of these works is supposed to be man's natural conscience, excited by some common influence of the Spirit, and may be awakened by some extrordinary or afflicting providence, or some convincing truth. 2. The Properties of the Works are three, (1.) Good for matter and end. (2.) Done freely. (3.) When we are in the way for convictions, or sorrow in Hell, are not preparatory works. 3. The degrees they differ in from gracious or meriting works are two, (1.) The person is not in a state of Grace. (2.) God has made no promise that he will pardon or justify such; thus Bp. Abelly, edit 11. Medulla Theol.  
I answer, 1. These Characters make these Works more a counterfeit of Grace than preparation for Grace, they describe a Pharisee or Hypocrite, that is further from the kingdom of Heaven than a Publican or Harlot; for, Christ tells them, the harlots went into the kingdom of Heaven before them; the Publican went home rather justified than the Pharisee, with his formal thanks to God for his distinguishing Godness: Most of such deceive themselves with that vain show of Godliness, having a form of Godliness, but denying the power thereof; when they are poor, miserable, wretched and naked, they think they need nothing, with the lukewarm Church of Laodicea: These are the foolish Virgins that have no Oil in their Lamps.  
2ly. The foundations this Opinion are grounded on, are not very sure: As, 1. They say John Baptist's Ministry was to prepare the way to Christ, by the doctrine of Repentance. Respon. The Baptists Ministry is to be considered either in general, with all Ministers, to prepare and make meet for the inheritance, Luke 17.6. To prepare his ways, to give knowledge of Salvation unto his people, by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercies of our God: His Work was to fit for Heaven, not to make Hypocrites, though he did make many. 2. His Ministry was to be considered, in relation to that peculiar dispensation which was to raise and awaken people's minds, in expectation of the Messiah, and fulfilment of the great promises about the incarnation of the Son of God, his Birth, Life, Death, Resurrection and Constitution of his Church, which was peculiar to himself.  
A Second Foundation of these preparatory Works is Christ's Expressions, preferring one People to another as such, with whom the means that others enjoyed in vain, would have prevailed for their true Repentance, Matth. 11. to this purpose Christ prefers the Tyrians and Sidonians to the People of Chorazin and Bethsaida. For Answer, I shall give Camero's Sense of these Expressions, who counts it a popular Hyperbole to upbraid the Unbelief of these People, who had seen so many of his Miracles; as if one should say, he is as bad or worse than the Devil, and these things seem to confirm this sense. 1. It would seem to reflect on the Bowels and Mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, that he would not walk two or three Miles to work a Miracle, among a People who wanted nothing else to secure their Salvation, and yet continue to Preach and work Miracles, where he knew the event would be only the Aggravation of their Sin and Punishment. 2. To attribute the Conversion of a People to any external means, and not the efficacy and energy of the Holy Ghost, is contrary to the sense of the Holy Ghost, for Paul may plant, and Apollo may water, but God gives the increase; and yet these words taken literally would imply this, if in Tyre and Sidon the Miracles had been done, which have been done in thee, they would have repent long ago. 3. The Letter of this Scripture would arrogate the power of Conversion to Miracles, which certainly is not the Sense of the Scripture, for Abram in the 16th. of Luke is brought in, saying in that Conference with the rich man, that if they heard not Moses and the Prophets, they would not believe one that risen from the dead. 4. Such Hyperbolical Language Christ frequently used, as Matth. 18.8, 9 If thy Hand or thy Foot offend thee, cut it off; if any man smite thee on the right Cheek, turn to him the other; when thou dost Alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doth: And of this kind seems Moses his Wish to be, who prayed that God would rather blot him out of the Book of Life, than destroy that People: The import of it, was only to express the earnestness of his desire.  
A Third Foundation is Christ's commendation of the young Man, Matth. 19.15. Mark 10.21. Luke 18.18. where 'tis said, Jesus loved him, and that he lacked but one thing of the Kingdom of Heaven. Resp. (1.) The same Scripture gives no account of his coming there, but rather of the impossibility of it, and that 'twas easier for a Camel to go through the Eye of a Needle, than for such a Man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; and farther, that 'twas a thing only possible to God: And in more plain terms, he describes him to be one who trusted in his riches, and what can more unfit Man for Heaven? God and Mammon are at greatest distance. As to that Expression of his loving him, I think it may be best explained by that distinction that is used about Christ's Tears, when he wept over a dead Lazarus, or sympathised with his Sisters, that they were expressions of his Humanity; and that tho' he had not the like Passions, yet the like Affections with us, and could love what's useful and in its kind beautiful amongst men, and such are all these Moral Virtues, that renders a Man amiable and useful in the Society where he lives.  
A Fourth Foundation is, that an Appetite and desire is antecedent unto enjoying Christ or his Benefits, Isa. 55.1. Ho every one that thirsteth, come ye to the Waters. Resp. That is every one; there is a great difference between a desire, and the determination of it, Psal. 4. many say, i. e. all, or all unconverted, Who will show us any good? but, Lord, lift thou up on me the light of thy countenance: It is the termination of their desires on Christ, on stable, lasting, heavenly, spiritual good things the Prophet exhorts to, he blames them for terminating their desires on what did not profit. A (3.) Argument against preparatory Works seems to be their inconsistence with the Nature of Conversion; for Creation, Regeneration, Resurrection and Victory, have no antecedent predispositions; all the preparation in order to be conquered and overcome, is to oppose with the greater force to prevent it; the others imply a Divine Omnipotency, working upon nothing, or what's unfit for the produced effect. (4.) It being granted that there's no necessary Connection between preparatory Works and Pardon, I see no reason why some may not be pardoned without it, as well as some have it, and not pardoned. (5.) The design of the Gospel being to exalt pardoning Grace, Ver. 15, 16. It's of Faith, that it might be of Grace: The less the Preparation appear, the more Grace is exalted and manifested.  
Obj. Should then a Man do nothing until he be justified? Resp. 1. Many are justified who know it not. 2. Our Privileges are not the Rule of our Duty, but God's Command. 3. That is, without doubt, we should do all we can, few if any do what they may, be always trying whether God gives ability or not. 4. To all under the means of Grace, at least God gives common Grace, and by that they may live a sober, just and honest Life among men, and they may and aught to attend on Ordinances, Phil. 2.12. Work in and about your own Salvation, as Camero excellently translates it, wait there until God works effectually, he doth it of his own good pleasure, where and when he will. Let fear and trembling therefore accompany thy attendance, lest thou miss the gale of that Wind that blows where it listeth: Here is no room for Idleness to a Non converted and unpardoned Soul: Faith comes by hearing, be thou a diligent hearer. 5. God gives Life through the Command of the Law, he speaks a Pardon through the Precept; it's that makes the Law evangelical, when he commands the dead to arise; Lazarus, come forth; Lame Cripple, rise and walk; Bed rid man, carry home thy bed, thy sins are forgiven thee.  
Having removed these Limitations, with the grounds of them, I shall establish the Doctrine more positively: And, (1.) By Testimony: Sclater on this Verse reconciles it with Prov. 17.15. where it's said, He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord: It were an abomination to justify a wicked Man, without a satisfaction, but not where a satisfaction to the Government is given, which is the Case of the ungodly Man in the Text. Who's justified through the righteousness of Christ, and this he quotes out of Pareus on the place: Wilson, another English Commentator, with great plainness gives it thus, At their justification he findeth them ungodly, and maketh them godly, and he doth it both by taking away the guilt and filth of their sin. The Righteousness of Christ is reckoned the Righteousness of that Person who doth by Faith embrace him. Pitcairn says, Ungodly here is taken in the same sense as when God raiseth the dead, and calls that which is not, to be, it being the term of alienation from which they are removed, from whence he bids farewell to all antecedent Causes, which some call inferior, others in some manner or measure, others administrating, others sine quo non, others Causes of possession tho' not of right, for all Holiness comes in as a way to the Kingdom, not as Causes of Rule. Diest thus, Justifying Grace finds him so in himself, but leaves him not so; For whom he justifies, them he sanctifies. God Justifies us not as Holy in ourselves, but as wanting righteousness he imputes a righteousness to us. The Anger of Abraham, Gen. 15. for want of Children, wanted a Pardon, even then before this declaration about him, that his Faith was imputed to him for righteousness. Theodore Szuingerus, whom Hottinger commends, and notwithout reason, as the best Commentator on this Epistle, compares the Text with 1 Kings 8.2. condemning the wicked to bring his way on his Head, and justifying the righteous to give him according to his righteousness, and solves the difficulty these two ways, 1. That the one is a Justification of a man's Cause, and the other a Justification of his Person, which is that in the Text. 2. This Justification of the Ungodly is not against a Law, but according to a Law; not without a righteousness, but without his own only: Besides, says he, Tho' it finds him ungodly, it leaves him not in his ungodliness. Bucer thus, If God should not justify the Wicked, none should be justified, for the Lord find us all wicked before we are justified. Greneus, Tho' Man may not justify the ungodly, God may, who has Power to forgive above Law. Pareus, Tho' they are justified who are wicked in themselves, yet not without Cause, and against Rule, since there is a satisfaction in Christ. Marlorat's Ecclesiastic Exposition is thus, The first Blessing of Salvation is Pardon, and our Pardon being a Justification, it must be a justification of the Ungodly: What can they say to this, that are Slaves to their Belly, and yet brag of their Works? are they better than Abraham, who left his Country, redeemed his Brother, and offered his Son, and Hoped in his God against all Hope? but God in justifying leaves us not ungodly: Such therefore ought rather to fear they are not justified, because they want the fruits of Justification, than brag they have the Causes of it in themselves. Calvin thus, It's observable, the Discourse is not about the way of living, but about the Causes of Salvation: He argues from contraries, and as Bucer says, not from words but sentences. This Sentence is full of Energy, Believeth on him that justifies the ungodly; wherein both the Nature of Faith and Righteousness are contained. In short, no body can come to the Righteousness of Faith, but who is in himself Ungodly, for Faith adorns us with another's Righteousness, which it begs of God; hence God is said to justify, when he freely forgives, and vouchsafes to love them with whom he may be justly angry, Ver. 6. without Works they merely cavil, who think all Works are not excluded, for he says not Works of the Law, but simply and without restriction, Works of all kinds.  
Beda venerabilis, Anno 700. says on this Text, What can he be but ungodly, until he be justified by Grace? for what Grace gives, it gives freely.— I dare not determine which of the two is the greater work, to make a just man, or to justify an ungodly man, both require equal power, but the latter greater grace or mercy: Boast not of thy works before faith, for faith found thee a sinner:— Man works not righteousness until he be justified, and that gins with Faith.  
Tho. Aquinas, 1260. on this Text, To believe is the first act of Righteousness which God works in us; by this man doth not merit righteousness, but subject himself to God's justification, and so thereby receives its effect: This (says he) the Apostle proves, (1.) From David's sense, v. 6. He is a blessed man to whom God gives a righteousness without foregoing works. (2.) From David's words, proving he had no righteousness, for he needed for Original, Actual and Venial sin, for the guilt of the Offence, Fact and Penalty of sin.  
Ambranat, a late Papist, 1665. Paris. The Apostle before acted an Orator by interrogations and frequent Questions, but now a Philosopher, with clouds of Arguments; before he opposed Gift and Works, now he opposes a Believer and Worker, a believer in him that endues the ungodly with his own righteousness; Patiatur ergo si non operatur, when he is not a doer, he is made a receiver, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
Erasmus says, Ungodly here comprehends all kind of Unrighteousness, there is no kind that is excepted. But there is no end of humane testimonies, for within my Cognizance I can reckon an hundred Interpreters of this Epistle. I shall add two more of greatest Authority in England: 1. The Westminster Assembly, I shall not quote the Annotations bearing their Name, but as I am informed on far less ground than Anthony Burgess his book of Justification, which was examined and approved by them; one of his Titles is, That gracious works are not so much as the condition or cause, sine qua non, of justification, and on this Text, p. 288. God doth account him as righteous, though a sinner in himself: p. 290. While looking into ourselves, we see nothing but matter of death and condemnation; and he has another Sermon, to prove that the Act of Faith is not imputed to justification, which the Assemblies Catachism expressly mentions. A Second Authority is the Articles and Homilies of the Church of England: But Dr. Wallis has done that in a Sermon ex preposito. I shall conclude with these two noted Fathers, Ambrose and Augustine, the former defines a worker to be not a transgressor of the Law, and a Non-worker a Transgressor; the latter in his Propositions on this Epistle, Tom. 4. p. 1193. Qui justificat impium de impio pium facit justificatus est, ut justus sit: Where I cannot omit, that the Fathers use the word justify, for making just, though the usual Scripture sense is to acquit, absolve; and the reason is evident, from the strict union between them, Rom. 6.7. He that is freed from sin, says our translation; justified, says the Original; absolved, or purged, says Basil. M. delivered, says Theophilact. which still confirms to me that the same grace which sanctifies, justifies, though in different manners; the one by efficiency, the other relatively; the one by positive influence, the other by institution; and Aug. p. 1195. shows this to be his sense, opus enim gratiae est, it's the work of grace, i. e. Gratiae donantis et dimittentis, pardoning Grace; ut moriamur peccato, that we die to sin; and indeed the Apostle supposes it, Rom. 6.2. How can we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? He had been speaking of Justification, not Mortification; the Apostle supposes it to be one grace that did both, and that these two effects are twins of the same birth, though not both born one way, which may be for an argument to prove that justifying grace finds us Ungodly and Non-workers, since sanctifying grace doth: And August. Tom. 6. in his Book de remissione & meritis, 'twas of Justification, as that which comprehends in it Sanctification and Pardon both, for his Argument is thus, p. 659. etc. What way we are justified in Christ, that way we are sinful in the first Adam; but we are justified in Christ through pardon and sanctification, Ergo, In Adam by guilt and pollution; and his Words thus we read, They are justified in Christ who believe in him, by reason of a secret communication and inspiration of spiritual grace, by which every one cleaves to the Lord, and is one spirit with him,— Adam through his own sin begot guilty persons, and Christ by his grace begets pardoned persons. This was wrote against Pelagius, who said, We sinned only in Adam by imitation: And the success is observed by Jansenus in his Augustinus, p. 103. that he brought Pelagius to own pardoning grace to be free without conditions, but not sanctifying grace: Great is the blessedness, says Pelagius, to obtain grace, i. e. (the grace of remission) without the works of the Law, and exercise of Repentance; for Rom. 11.29. The gifts of God are without repentance; He that believes in Christ in that day, becomes as he who has fulfilled the whole Law: And the same Author, Tom. 3. p. 33. Who knew well Augustine's mind, and said, without that owning of grace which Augustine's doctrine contains, Christian Humility is not attainable, having read him all ten times, and such Books thirty times, says, that the grace of remission of sin belongs to the gift of habitual grace, not to after actual helping grace; which, says he, my Author delights to call medicinal grace to nature, in its sick, yea, dead state. Fewer words are about this grace, because Pelagius owns nature guilty, but not hurt or wounded by sin, and so needed pardon, but not grace to regenerate. But 2ly. A greater than Augustine is here, the Spirit of God constantly unites them two, and who dare separate them, Psalm 32.2. Whose sin is covered, and in whose spirit there is no guile: The Scriptures the Apostle quotes on the Text, Rom. 8.1. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, 2 Tim. 1.14. Pardoning grace was abundant toward a persecuting Saul, together with Faith and Love, 2 Pet. 1.3. All things belonging to life eternal and godliness,— He calls to Glory and Virtue at once, by that call are given precious promises, Tit. 3.5. By the washing of Regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost,— being justified by his grace, Gal. 5.24. They that are in Christ have crucified the flesh, with its affections and lusts, 2 Cor. 5.27. If any man be in Christ, he is a New Creature, 2 Cor. 6.11. But ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, etc. I cannot but take Notice of what gave birth and occasion to the Popish Errors, who make justification and sanctification one and the same; or, that the one is the other, viz. The Father's expressions, who understood them still of distinct natures, but given at once. A ring may enrich a Woman by its native value, and marry her by legal constitution; a King may arm a Man with a Sword, and signify his royal favour by its gift. The Grace that doth justum facere, doth gratum facere, makes him just in himself, and signifies his guilt pardoned, and his person accepted in favour.  
3ly. As Humane Testimony and Divine, so reason unites them, can a man have faith, that is, justifying and saving, and not be regenerate? faith and love being the two first branches of the root of Grace, the Heart and Head of the New-Creature, and can a man be regenerate, and not justified? can he have the greater privilege, and not the lesser? can he be a Son, and not a free Subject?  
I might bring a 3d. Argument from the nature of the Subject, viz. That before Conversion and Regeneration man can do no spiritual good thing, there is no action of ours acceptable to God but through Christ, which supposes an interest in him, and union with him; without faith it is impossible to please God; the sacrifice, the ploughing, the praying of the wicked is sin; and the foundation of it is, We are dead in sins and trespasses, until the minute that God quickens us, Eph. 2.1. and what can come from stinking Carcases in the graves, but savour of death, a loathsome smell. We cannot have faith, until God gives it, it's the Gift of God, a faith of the operation of God, and he gives it through Christ, Heb. 12.1. Christ is the author and finisher of our faith: I know no Commentator that denies his merit to come in for its proper influence to the gift of Faith. Can an evil tree bring forth such fruits, or a branch not engrafted in the true vine? when we have no spiritual discerning, 1 Cor. 2.14. and having our hearts alienated from the Life of God, through the ignorance that is in us, Eph. 4.17. What good can we do? Now no gist less than quickening, regenerating grace, can do this. The answer given to this usually by Arminians, and men tending that way, is, that Regeneration, Creation, Resurrection, are but Metaphorical Terms; and one thing they fail in likeness is, that the one is wrought by degrees, the other instantaneous; the one is on passive matter, that yields according to the power put forth on them, but this is on the will of Man that can resist a sufficient grace, to bring forth such effects. Resp. This the Scripture favours not, for it says, God works to will as well as to be able; and it says, When we were dead he quickened us. 2. This was the Pelagian Error, that God gave grace to be able, but not to be willing 
* Jan. Aug. To. 3. lib. 2. c. 9 . 3. It would be Grace restoring to Adam's condition, to be able to do good or evil: 4. This distinction of sufficient and efficacious grace, Jansenus says, Augustine nor none of the Latin Fathers knew, nor any general Council ever did determine 
† To. 3. lib. 2. c 29. . About 5 for grace to have its efficacy from the corrupt will of Man, is enmity, to be the Author of Love from sufficient grace, it is not; that brings not forth the effect, there is nothing else in the will of Man: If it be another addition of grace, the former was not sufficient; and indeed where it's not able to conquer the will of man, and bring forth its effect, to make man willing, it is not. But this were to leave the Question about justifying grace, and to dispute about sanctifying grace.  
A 4th. Argument, is from the nature and the kind of justifying acts: As to its Original, it's gracious, as to its Object, it's pardon, put these two together, a gracious pardon, and it supposes the Object under great guilt and misery: For, (1.) Grace is goodness in all its variety and fullness; when the Lord proclaims his own graciousness, Exod. 34.6. He describes it by abundance of Goodness and Truth, tenderness of mercy, and longness of suffering, and this as the spring of pardoning grace; Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin. Where the person is just by a constituted Law, there is no need of such amplifications of Goodness; for if it be an easy Law, the grace was in making law, and not in justifying by the Law. (2.) Grace is goodness flowing from the Heart of the Giver; it's called gratia gratum faciens, because it renders the person acceptable and lovely in the sight of God; hence it bears the name of Love, through the Book of Canticles, Chap. 8.6. Set me as a seal on thy heart, as a seal upon thine arm: So is every object of Freegrace, his Love is fixed on them, and hence the arm of his Power protects them: But this Love of Grace is incomparable, it's stronger than Death, for at once it delivers from a legal and spiritual Death, the guilt and the power of sin, and him that hath the power of Death, that is the Devil; as cruel as the Grave, that devours all before it; The Coals thereof are coals of fire, no waters can quench it, nor floods drown it: And as its full, so its free; If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would be utterly contemned. A (3.) Ingredient of grace, is mercy, pardoning grace and mercy are but different names of the same thing, and suppose the Object in a miserable condition, Rom. 11.32. God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy on all: And this mercy is preventing mercy, for the Apostle speaking to the very same purpose, Rom. 10.20. says, I was found of them that sought me not, I was made manifest in them that asked not for me: And yet farther, Rom. 9.11. He shows, that all the causes, conditions and motives of Mercy, are to be sought for in the disposition of the Author, and not the disposition of the subject: That the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of Works, but of him that calleth. But the Name grace seems to import somewhat higher than all this, it speaks exclusiveness of conditions, Rom. 3.24. Being justified freely by his grace; that is, saith the Neat Witsius, without any cause or condition. (2.) It speaks fullness, John 1.16. Of his fullness we have received grace for grace: Colos. 2.10. In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in him: And it speaks perseverance, for the Covenant of Grace contains the sure mercies of David, Psalm 89.33. Though I visit their iniquities with stripes, nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from them. It speaks the Object in a most wretched condition, Isa. 57.1, 7. I won't contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth; though my anger hath an end, my mercy hasned; for the spirit would fail before me, and the souls which I have made; as they cannot convert themselves, so they can't bear my endless wrath: For the iniquity of his Covetuousness was I wroth, and smote him, I hide me, and was worth, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart: A most desperate Condition; the easiest law in the world could speak no comfort to him, but grace can: I have seen his ways, and will heal him; I will lead him, and restore comforts to him: Tho' there be no matter in the subject to bring Comfort out of, my grace hath a creative power; I create the fruit of the lips, peace to him that is far off, etc. (last,) Sovereignty is an ingredient in grace: We read of grace upon the Throne, a Throne of Grace, all pure grace: Where the Transactions and Dipensations are according to Law, there is no place for overruling Sovereignty, but this justification is a dispensation from a Throne of Grace, and the very end of it is to glorify that grace, verses 16, 17. It is of faith, that it might be by grace: All Laws, and transgressions of Laws, all Dispensations of Providence, and Permissions, all Manifestations of other Attributes, are for the discovery of the height of this Throne: All is for the praise of the glory of his Grace: And the whole of this grace receives a lustre in its first preventive act towards a sinner; for as he is God of all Grace, he calls us into his eternal glory. If all the other streams of grace finds us in our sin and guilt, elective grace, redeeming grace, calling and converting grace, why should it be supposed or conjectured, that pardoning grace doth not find us so to? when the very formality of the object is sinfulness: The Text tells us, 'tis a covering of sin, a not imputing of sin, a forgiving of Iniquity, a blotting out our transgressions, a removing of them from us as far as the East is from the West; an act that renders God a Peerless God, and therefore supposes our condition worst; Who is a God like unto thee? Micah 7.18. that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant rf his Heritage, he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy; he will turn again, he will have compassion upon us, he will subdue our iniquities, and cast all their sins into the depth of the Sea.  
The only Use that I shall make of this is to linners, who are in their Ungodliness, and without Works, and whose Consciences tells them so; the doctrine speaks this to you, that you have as great reason, and as great encouragement to come to this throne of Grace, and to sue out for a pardon in the Name of Christ, as any others. There was an universal command to the Apostles, to preach the Gospel to every creature, Mark 16.15. And that commission stands a Directory to every one, that is a Servant of Christ in the Office of the Gospel; and as Christ invites, so the Church of Christ invites also; the Language of a sanctified Soul over a Brother or Sister, according to the flesh, is like that of the Spouse, We have a little Sister, and she hath no breasts, what shall we do for our Sister in the day she shall be spoken for? The Bride saith come, and the Spirit saith come, Rev. 22.17. And their joint voice is, Whosoever will, let him come. Beware of being guilty of quenching or provoking the Spirit; may be your Consciences bear witness, that there is a higher Messenger sent to offer you a pardon this day than the voice of any clay Trumpet; but, whether you find any such quickener and enabler, rendering you willing and desirous to say, Whether shall we go? for thou hast the words of eternal life; in thee have we righteousness and strength, by thee only will we make mention of thy Name: Thy face Lord we will seek; Cast the skirts of thy Garments over us: I say, whether you feel this influence or not, it is this external offer, that both gives you right to come to a pardoning God, for forgiveness of sins, through the righteousness of Christ only, and makes it your duty, however torn the Garments of your own Righteousness are; or your consciences thereby, to depend upon our Lord Jesus Christ and his Righteousness, by which the Law gains its end, and the Government full satisfaction, and in this trust and dependence to come to the Throne of Grace, and sue in his name for the forgiveness of your sin, and justification of your persons: I say, the offer gives you a right. In other transactions with men, there are these three ways of conveyance of a right, (1.) The Offer of his Estate, or Goods, or Privilege. (2.) The price that I pay him for it. (3.) The Writings that contain its Extent and Title. (4.) The Ceremonies of seizing, or taking possession; all these go to complete the right, but if we had to do with an Unchangeable Person, full of goodness and kind designs towards us, he would never go back from his first Offer, that would bring him on to complete the Title in all the rest. Now here you have the offer of a Pardon, and the offer of a Sonship, and Inheritance with it; the God that cannot lie nor change has made it: Here you have the tenor and extent of the blessing in the Covenant of Grace, the Spirit of God has penned it, and you may see the blessing is great, and the tenor so ordered, that it may reach you sinners: He tells you, the price is paid already, it is 1600 years since 'twas laid down; the invitation is, All things are ready, come unto the feast: The Question is only, Whether the World or this is worth your Choice? Is not a Pardon desirable? Have we no long to come out of this prison, where there's no water? will we adventure the paying the utmost farthing ourselves, rather than to be obliged to Christ for a full payment? but this offer comprehends a Command in its bosom; if our Unworthiness renders us ashamed, and our Guiltiness afraid, and makes us apt to say, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man; Let conscience of duty oblige us to draw nigh, for this is his Commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ: And none of us can say, but this command reaches us, else unbelief would not be the condemnation of the World. Christ was grieved for the hardness of their hearts that believed not, and wept over an obstinate jerusalem, saying, Oh if thou hadst known at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace! Now which of these two doth your Hearts conclude will be the issue of this offer, either They would not come to me that they might have life; or, Thine they are, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy Word: I have given to them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them; Holy Father, keep through thine own Name those whom thou hast given me. The grand Offence that we stumble at commonly, if our Consciences answer one another, is the particular circumstances and aggravations of our particular sins: And yet 'tis a very unreasonable Objection, it savours rather of the darkness of Hell than the light of Heaven above, or Faith below. Should we delay the looking after a Pardon, because we are very guilty? should sinners not accept of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, because God sent him to bless us, in turning us from our Iniquities? did we ever read of any that Christ threw off as incurable, because his Satisfaction or the Tenor of the Gospel could not reach them? is our Condition worse than Manasse's or Saul's? has our delay been longer than the Thief on the Cross, or our filthiness viler than Mary Magdalen's? There are these four Conditions that Christ has specified in his Gospel to prevent Exceptions. (1.) Profane Persons, Mat. 21.32. The Publicans and the Harlots believed in him. (2.) Secure Persons, like lukewarm Laodicea, that was insensible of her own misery, yet he stands knocking at their door, and offering, that if any of them, the worst of them, would open, he would come into them, and sup with them: His fullness should have a feast of Glory and Honour, and their emptiness should sup on his fullness. (3.) The Hypocrites: Of all Conditions that seems to be the most dangerous; such were the Scribes and Pharisees, Mat. 23. Hypocrites; yet how often would Christ have gathered these under the Wings of his Righteousness, Ver. 37. Yet these Invitations were not altogether fruitless. Saul was a Pharisee, Nichodemus was a Pharisee: The Balm of Gilead is a Medicine can cure this desperate distemper, and the Blood of Christ can cover the guilt of it. Another galling circumstance to a tender, or a wounded conscience, is backsliding, falling away from first Love, and walking unsuitably to pregnant, preventive mercies; but in Isaiah 1. Jer. 3. How many invitations to a backsliding-Church, backslidden from the greatest Privileges ever Church received in the World, backslidden into the vilest abominations that ever people were guilty of, Idolatry, worshipping a Stock or Stone for their God, and yet with what earnest entreaties, and what persuasive arguments does he plead with them: How shall I give thee up Ephraim, I remember thee still! the love of thy espousal was pleasant to me: O Israel! I am married to thee, why should there be a divorce? Come, and let us reason together, though thy Iniquities were as crimson, and thy transgressions as scarlet, I will heal thy backslidings, I will love thee freely, and receive thee graciously. To expect to come any other way, or upon our delay to come on better terms, were to pervert the very Nature of the Gospel, and say, we would not be saved in God's method, but our own; Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy hath he saved us. Will we reject the way and method that all the cloud of witnesses were saved in, and will we be saved in that way never one was saved in? they attain not unto the Law of righteousness, because they sought it, or as it were by the works of the Law. Christ is the true and living way; is there any fault we can find in him? is he not able to save to the uttermost? is there any righteousness like his? it's everlasting: Can we give any satisfaction to divine Government like what he hath given? Can we bear the Curse and drink the Cup that he did? is he not altogether lovely in himself, and altogether fit for us? infinite Wisdom and infinite Goodness, fitted and prepared him and is he not willing that we should share of his righteousness? doth not his offer speak it? Come unto me all ye that are heavy laden; doth not his tears and his sorrows over them that refuse and defer speak it? doth not that eternal Cheerfulness he undertook his Work with speak it? Lo, I come, in the volume of thy Book 'tis written of me; thy Law is within my Heart, the bent of my Heart is to do thy will; and that desire left him not, nor ever was abated under the heat of the day, and heaviest of the curse: I have a baptism to be baptised with, and how am I straightened till it be accomplished? with desire have I desired to eat this passover; having loved his own, he loved them to the end: And will not all this Love towards us kindle some sparks of desire in our frozen breasts? done't we think they deserve an Anathema Maranatha, that love not this Lord Jesus Christ? The depth and height, the breadth and length of his Love passeth all knowledge, he was full of Love, as he was a man; he loved Lazarus so, and he loved the young man in the Gospel so; he was full of love, as he was a Mediator: Such was that love, whose dimensions our narrow minds cannot span, but he was more full of love as he was God: God is love, and God so loved the World to give his Son; is not this Emanuel worthy of our acceptation? God's infinite Wisdom found him, can we find a better, or do without him? have we no self-love for our souls? what will become of us without a pardon? can we bear the curse of the Law, or wrath of God? is it not worthy acceptance on any terms? but what terms can be better, it's come to God and beg Repentance; the Almighty makes the heart soft; I will pour down the spirit of Grace and supplication, and they shall look on him whom they have pierced, and mourn: Obj. But coming to God is believing, and I cannot believe until he gives me faith, which is not yet? Resp. Put that to Trial, what if the Spirit of God be now directing and quickening thy conscience to this Work? and the Language of thy heart is, stay until time for Prayer at night, or to morrow; you will think of it; Alas, Alas, this is the common answer to God's Spirit himself, what wonder the Prophet's cry, To whom is the Arm of the Lord revealed? Lord bless this for better fruits.   

SERMON II.  ROM. iv 5, 6. 
— His Faith is counted for Righteousness.  
Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the Man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works.  
IN the Former Discourse you have an account of the condition and disposition of the subject of Justification, in this I propose an account of the Gospel-method, how God justifies the ungodly; it is a different Question from that of the convicted Jews, Acts 2. Men and Brethren what shall we do to be saved? This is, What doth God do to save a sinner that has contemned his Authority, brought disorder into his Government, violated his holy, just and good Laws, and goes on frowardly without repenting of what he has done? the Rebel doth not, will not yield, shall the Governor yield? doth God need us? how is it possible to reconcile God's justice and Man's enmity? how can a just God justify an ungodly person? The Apostle makes but two sentences of the Answer: 1. He imputes his Faith to Righteousness. 2. He says, that Righteousness is imputed to Blessedness. The nature of the Discourse is didactic, instructive, and there are these three Questions that are matters of no small Moment nor mean Contraversies: 1. Whose this Righteousness is: 2. What is the importance of the imputation of righteousness to a man for blessedness: 3. What is the meaning of Faiths being imputed to righteousness. I shall only propose what I am most persuaded of to be the true sense of them, and what persuades me to be of that mind, without using means to confute others: I shall leave them to the same liberty I presume on. As to the first there are but two general Opinions, viz. Either Christ's or our own, though each are subdivided, in what righteousness of Christ's it is, or of ours. My Business is to confirm and establish this truth, that this Righteousness in the Text imputed for blessedness, is the righteousness inherent in our blessed Mediator, and if this one Character of being without works were to be understood abstracted from the Apostles design, which is not to exclude works from righteousness, but our works and our righteousness, I should think it a distinguishing Mark between Christ's righteousness and any man's else; for the righteousness of Works consists in a conformity to the preceptive part of the Law, but Christ's Righteousness consists also in a conformity to the sanction of the Law: He was made a curse for us, and that is not to work in the Scripture phrase, but to suffer, though in itself hard work, even Soul-travel; but doubting the solidity of this, I shall propose others of greater stability. (1.) That Righteousness that is the cause of Blessedness, and whose fruit is the remission of sin, is the righteousness of Christ, for there is no other name given under Heaven, and therefore no other righteousness by which a Man can be saved; but the righteousness in the Text is the cause of blessedness and pardon, there must be some near connexion between pardon and imputation of righteousness, else the Apostle did mistake the Prophet's sense, saying, he meant imputation of righteousness unto blessedness, when he said, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven; the connexion is either pretended to be that of the cause to the effect, or some kind of requisite condition. They who say, this is our own righteousness, are for the latter, who say, it's Christ's, are for the former, and with reason; for our own righteousness wants not works, our justifying faith is not without works, but this is. 2ly. The righteousness of Christ and our pardon are more necessarily united than our faith, for pardon is as soon given as it: These are more likely senses, when David said, Blessed is he whose sin is forgiven, to mean, blessed is he who has an interest in Christ, and his satisfaction, than to mean blessed is he who reputes: Nay, the Prophet adds that as another thing, Blessed is he in whose spirit there is no guile, i. e. Blessed is the pardoned man, and the sincere man. 3ly. He is ungodly when forgiven, therefore his righteousness is not the condition of it. 4ly. C. 3. v. 25. To declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, why should we think the Terms connexed, other than what before he unites as cause and effect? this is to unite what the Apostle separates, our Works and Justification, and separate what he unites, Christ righteousness and remission. (2.) It is not supposable to think, that Christ's righteousness or satisfaction should be no where mentioned in this dispute about the causes of Justification, when it's confessed that that is the grand and only meriting cause: It is strange, that he should dispute about the cause of pardon, and yet never mention the true cause; but instead of it, always a little petty requisite without any causality at all, and the more strange, that he should so frequently mention that cause under the name of Christ's blood, and his being delivered for our offences, the matter of his righteousness in the context, and seldom ever the effect without it; but when he calls it by the name of righteousness, the proper name by which it saves us, for his blood saves us as it is a righteousness, a conformity to the law of Redemption, that wherein the Law obtained its end, than it should not be esteemed his, but our own: (3.) We may learn whose righteousness it is that is mentioned in the dispute, by what was proposed in the These or Doctrine to be disputed, which he proposes both negatively and affirmatively, viz. Justified not by our righteousness or works, but God's; we are justified by God's righteousness, this he proposes Rom. 1.17. as the grand end of the Gospel; Therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith; surely God's Righteousness and Faith by which it's received, are distinct things, from thence to v. 21. c. 3. he proves, that all our own righteousness is entirely rejected from any interest in this affair, and again v. 21. proposes thus, the righteousness of God to be that, which he now undertakes to prove to be the only righteousness we are justified by: But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested; and that by God he means Christ, Rom. 10.3, 4. may be easily learned from his words, Unto the righteousness of God, for Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness; and that it is not called the righteousness of God because his gift, we may learn from Rom. 1.8. Your faith is spoken of throughout the world: Faith is a work, this is the work of God to believe on his name, and faith is a righteousness, for there is a conformity to the Law in it, but it is ours, your faith; faith differs from this righteousness as the act and object, Righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: What unprejudiced man would call that righteousness and faith the same? faith differs from it as the effect from the cause, 2 Pet. 1.1. Have obtained the like precious faith with us, through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: Who would wish for a plainer expression to prove that the gift of Faith is the fruit of Christ's merit? and therefore this righteousness must be imputed to us, before that gift be possessed by us. (4.) The Epithets of this righteousness speaks it to be Christ's, Rom. 3.21, 22, 24. 1. It's the righteousness of God; God was Author, Owner, Contriver, Actor, Giver, Subject of this righteousness, it deserves the name by way of Eminence; who could contrive it but his Wisdom, give it but his Grace, bear it but his Patience, work it but his Power, possess it but his Fullness? 2. Without the Law, on two accounts, both as to the person, and as to the righteousness. (1.) The person, Gal. 4. Was made under the law; he came under it by his own voluntary choice, not natural necessity, as we are, hence without the Law. (2.) The Righteousness was, that no precept of the Law required to die or suffer, that was none of its duties or righteousness; it was its penalty in case of Unrighteousness. (3.) It's a righteousness now manifested; faith and repentance has shined in the practice of the Patriarches and Prophets ever since Adam, Heb. 11. Abel, Noah, Enoch believed; indeed Christ's was a new kind the World never saw before. (4.) It was witnessed by the Law and the Prophets; if we take the Law for the books of Moses, they bear witness to it. Abraham believed, and it was imputed to him for righteousness; the bruising his heel, Gen. 3. witnesses his suffering the principal matter of his righteousness: If we take it for the Typical Law, that witnessed to it, for all the sacrifices were Types, and Types are visible Prophecies, and all the Language is, the Messiah was to suffer in the room of others, to obey a Law for others; and the Prophet's witness, Isa. 45. Surely shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness, Jer. 23.6. The Lord our righteousness, Dan. 9 To bring in everlasting righteousness: There are the Testimonies of three Prophets,— To him gave all the Prophet's witness. (5.) It was a righteousness conveyed through faith, put on them that believe, v. 22. which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them that believe. (6.) A righteousness that consist in a conformity to a Law, which to us is a Law of Faith, not Works. We are bound to believe his Obedience to all the Law in the Covenant of Redemption, but not to work one bit of it: Hence we being justified by that righteousness, our boasting is excluded, v. 27. (7.) A faith that consists in shedding of blood, in suffering, v. 25. These two are to the same effect; Through faith in his blood, and righteousness by faith. (8.) A righteousness whose fruit is remission of sin, v. 24. To declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed; the same Coherence that is in the Text between imputation of righteousness and pardon. (9) Rom. 9.4. A righteousness wherein the Law attained its full end, the Subject Life and Happiness, and the Lawgiver honour and glory. (10.) A righteousness, the gift whereof glorifies grace to the uttermost, the righteousness of an Angel is not such a gift as this is. (5.) It's a righteousness that is made ours: As Adam's first offence or unrighteousness was made ours, that never inhered in us, but death came on us by it, than it has some relation to us, and we to it; this is at large in C. 5. where the Author of this righteousness is plainly called the second Adam, and if that be not plain enough, v. 21. he is called Jesus Christ our Lord: And that it's made ours, 1. By a gracious gift; abundance of grace, and of the gift of righteousness: 2. It still remained inherent in him alone, for justification of life came upon all men, by the righteousness of one: If it were ours, there must be as many righteousnese as justifications; but here, by the obedience of one many are made righteous. 3. It's conveyed through a Law: The word made imports a legal constitution, and the first Adam's case shows it; until the Law sin was in the world; sin is not imputed when there is no law; wherever imputation is there is a Law; the Hostage cannot suffer for his King or Country but by some Law; Christ was made sin for us only by Law, and we the righteousness of God in him by law. The Debtor is relieved through the Sureties discharge by a Law, and this Law is the Law of Faith, that we ought daily to study; the Law was, If thou as sponsor wilt die for them, they shall live; if thou wilt go under the curse of their Law, take their Law-place, for thy sake they shall have the place of Sons. It's much harder to me to comprehend how Adam's first offence should be imputed to us for death, than Christ's righteousness for life; and it seems worthy observation, that the one imputation is never very clearly revealed, until the other be set over against it. The Apostle thereby tells us we are no losers, but gainers by it; an imputed righteousness may well free from an imputed guilt, and commends that righteousness imputed, for it frees from more than that, viz. from all guilt. This 5th. C. gives account of the Original of imputation, how it comes that one should be justified by another's righteousness, or condemned by another's sin. Solomon, Eccles. 7.24. among his many learned Inquiries in his latter days, inquires after the original of sin, how a righteous man should become a sinner: One thing have I found, that God made man upright, but we have found out many inventions. The Apostles enquiry is of a greater depth, how one man's guilt or righteousness should be conveyed to another? Adam's sin or Christ's righteousness. (6.) It's a righteousness made ours, as he was sin, 2 Cor. 5.21. Isa. 53. which did never inhere in him. (7.) From the very Title of imputed, but that will be made clear in the 2d. general head, to which I now come, and whether I refer a considerable Question belonging to this, viz. What righteousness of Christ is it that is imputed?  
II. As to the second Question, What is meant by Imputation of righteousness? I shall begin with the signification of the word, which as others is translated from humane use to signify by similitude some divine thing. Putation, thinking belongs to the Art of Logic, and in the Greek the words are Conjugates, branches of the same root, and in Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used for thoughts too; The Lord knoweth the thoughts of men, that they are vanity, Psal. 94.11. (2.) Computation belongs to Arithmetic, and Greek Authors explain this word by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to calculate, number or reckon, and as the Art of Logic has the name from the Greek, the Art of Arithmetic, Accounting, in Hebrew, has its Name from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, see Munster's Lexicon; and so the Scripture uses the word, Leu. 25.27. Let him count the years of the sale thereof: Eccl. 7.26. Counting one by one, to find out the account. (3.) Imputation is an applying of Accounts, and the things valued and esteemed thereby; it is account, assign or ascribe, by way of counting and reckoning to some particular persons. We have here then the righteousness of Christ as a rich treasure of Grace in the bank of God; it's one individual Jewel given of God for the redemption of slaves, and its value is so great, and the way it's communicated being by Accounts, it may be distributed to pay for the redemption of Millions, all at various times and places. We have God represented as a great Merchant, with his rich Fund, and his Books of Accounts, the Merchandise Prov. 3. Is better than that of silver or gold: Rev. 3. the Naked may buy garments of Righteousness; and Isa. 55. they may buy without Money or Price. Among these Books Rev. 20.12. The books were opened, and another book was opened: There is one Book that is called The Lamb's Book, Rev. 13.8. Whose Names are not written in the book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the World. There are two Books of Life, one for Angels by their own inherent righteousness, another for fallen Man, who obtain it through the Death of the Lamb, his passive righteousness: In this book Christ has Credit for the redemption of all, agreed for between the Father and Son, and when a persons Name is put in that Book, Christ's righteousness is transferred to him for Life, for a salvation from all evil, Dan. 12.1. Thy People shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the Book: Luk. 10.20. Rejoice that your Names are written in Heaven: We may then see what the Imputation of Christ's righteousness to us is, it was the putting our Names in among the Number for whom Christ died, it's having all Christ did and suffered put so to our account, that we may actually partake of all the Blessings God's goodness and grace designed for us, but the transgressed Law rendered it inconsistent with the governor's Authority, Honour and Wisdom to confer it upon us; the way this impediment and bar was removed, was by the sufferings of Immanuel. Imputation is either the application of that benefit from Eternity in the Elective Decree of God, or the actual investing the Person with it in time: It's my present Light, that the Imputation of Righteousness to Blessedness was the eternal act, and the imputation of Faith to Righteousness the temporal; the former was 2 Tim. 1.9. a purpose of conferring this grace and gift of Righteousness upon us in Christ, before the World began. There was a double Gift set down in that Book by him that is God of all grace, sovereign Proprietor. 1. We were given to Christ; Thine they were, and thou gavest them me. 2. Christ's Righteousness was given to us by his Consent, he became surety, his Name was put in our Book of Debt and Death, and ours in his of Righteousness and Life.  
Two things need proof here: 1. That Christ's Righteousness is transferred in its Value and Virtue to us in way of account. 2. That that was from Eternity. The first is manifest from the Text, for one cannot be justified without an antecedent righteousness; the Non-worker and Ungodly person has no righteousness of his own, it must then be another's transferred, tho' it still inhere in him only, yet its value may be transferred to us: Thus Money may still lie in its old Chests, and yet be transferred in accounts through twenty several Men, as in Amsterdam, and now in London's Bank of England. Land is never removed from its place, and yet thoro' how many hands is it transferred, and its value is proposed to be made as Current as Money by ingenious men, and imputation is made use of to denote the way. The second I shall not treat on, but I desire that I may not be misunderstood, for it's not my Opinion that we are justified from Eternity, no, not until Faith. Justification presupposes a righteousness, and a righteousness that we have some relation in, which is by imputation made or founded.  
2. This is the common use of the word in Scripture, Philem. 18. If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee, put that: The relative comprehends the antecedent, that Debt, that Injury, that Theft, on my account, impute it to me: The Levites are put in the room of the firstborn, and the Heave-offering for the Corn of the Threshing-floor. The three famous Imputations in Scripture are Adam's sin to us, our sin to Christ, and Christ's righteousness to us: Our Faith and Religion are founded on them, and who denys one believes not aright any of them. The Imputation of our sin to Christ is fairly set out in Leu. 16.21. Aaron shall put all the Iniquities, sins and transgressions of the People of Israel upon the head of the live Goat.  
I shall propose it thus, If our sin be imputed to Christ, his righteousness is to us; but our sin is imputed to Christ, Ergo.  
The Proposition is a Majore, for it's more credible that Privileges be imputed than Penalties, a man may give of his own at pleasure, but cannot punish another so: The assumption is expressed in Scripture, The Lord hath laid on him the Iniquity of us all, Isa. 53. 1 Pet. 2.24. Heb. 9 last. Psal. 31.10. 40.12. 69.5. as he groaned under our sin, we may rejoice in his righteousness. In 2 Cor. 5.21. we have both Propositions, He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him: The Question is, Whether sin or made be the words that are to bear the Interpretation? if sin for sacrifice, or made for imputed? I am for the latter: 1. Else sin would be used equivocally in different senses, and the Apostle would bring a So phism instead of an Argument; He knew no sin properly, Ergo, made sin; so he never knew any of his own, ours he knew. 2. Sin is in opposition to righteousness; it is not meant the effects of righteousness, a pardon; a pardon and righteousness are not usually put for one another. 3. That righteousness is still employed to inhere in him: Of God in him; and indeed made a pardon is not good sense. 4. Made is used for imputed, Rom. 5.19. By one man's disobedience many were made sinners, and by ones obedience many were made righteous. 5. Critics distinguish between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and say, the latter is used for a Sacrifice, not the former; and I find this distinction made Heb. 10.2, 3, 4. Conscience of sin, remembrance of sin, take away sin, there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; but v. 6. Burnt-offering and sacrifice for sin, there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; and I find it often in the seventy: Indeed the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth to sin, and to expiate or purify from sin, but that is by an usual rule in that language, for the same word to signify contraries in different conjugations: I have observed nigh twenty Instances in the Bible, the Greek doth not so. I shall add to this Argument this explication of it: (1.) Christ took on him the state and condition of a guilty sinner, he was in albo reorum, he was taken from prison and judgement, he was in their sordid form, and dead in Law, so the Believers are put in the condition and state of righteous persons, so treated. 2. He had on him the guilt of a Votee, that is, by his own consent undertook to suffer; Lo I come, Psal. 40. 3. Also the guilt of a Surety for his Votee's guilt, i. e. his own consent put him in our place; a Votee's confinement and humiliation is for themselves, not others; the Covenant of Redemption put him under the Covenant of Works, his own consent brought him under the curse, and our sin brought us under; we enter by different doors, but come to the same place, the primitive Law. In opposition to this stands our freedom from that sanction; the sanction of that Law cannot touch a Believer, nor debar him from life, or any blessing God designed him: Now all this guilt inheres in Christ, and this immunity and happy condition inheres in us: But, 4. Imputed speaks a relation to what inheres not; there may be a just foundation of imputation in the imputers Goodness and Grace, a man may give to another in his book of Accounts as well as in his Will, and make the Title as sure. 2. There may be an imputation when the ground of it is neither in the Imputer nor Imputee, as in the case of Bail, Surety or Hostages, who is may be killed, tormented for the treachery of his King, Country, or General; of this kind is the imputation of our sin to Christ, and his righteousness to us, it supposes them not to inhere; thus our sins and iniquities are laid on him, imputed to him, and his Blood, his Death is imputed to us, his righteousness; this Dr. Tuckney calls cogitative imputation.  
3ly. The foundation this Translation is founded on is a proof for it, and that is threefold: (1.) A contract between the Father and Son about it. (2.) An union. And, (3.) An office by virtue of that contract. In the contract these three steps seems distinguishable: First, Christ's person as God-man; it is not  to the rules of Wisdom, that the means should be more noble than the end, and that this glorious person that is more excellent than Angels and Men, put them altogether, should be merely a mean, or a tool, (to speak with reverence) to deliver us from misery, and to make us happy; he would not in all things have the pre-eminence, if he were Mediator and the Means only, and we the end; the end is the most noble, the end is first designed; he would not be the first born of every creature in the Womb of divine decrees, if his existence was only thought on to save us: Nor could we be chosen in him, Eph. 1.5. If he had not some antecedent foundation in the thoughts of God, [compared with a consulting deliberating man:] in order antecedent to our Election; the ground is presupposed to the building: Let us then with the Schoolmen conceive of such a person, designed of God as the last most perfect and glorious of all the Creation of God, one in whom God glorifies the fullness of his sufficiency and bounty of his goodness to the uttermost, and he both by due and fitness becomes Lord and Governor of all the creatures. Secondly, To pass the Oeconomy of Angels above us, let us suppose by the conjunct Counsel of God the Father, and this now supposed Immanuel, [existing only in the divine nature, but a relative dignity and honour belonging to him as such a person, and in such an office, which was a glory, John 17. Glorify me with that glory which I had with thee, before the foundation of the World: viz. To be Lord and end of the Creatures is a great glory, all others being made for him, Col. 1.16. All things were created for him; but now as Mediator, and in a state of humiliation, he is made a mean, and they the end] out of the species of men, some designed and chosen to be the more immediate train and fellows of this great Lord, and end of all, Psal. 45.7. They are called Fellows; With the oil of gladness above all thy Fellows: We may read the designs and contrivance in Christ's intercession for the complete execution, John 17.24. Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me, where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me: How they do it, we may read Rev. 5.11, 12. etc. There being elect Angels as well as Men, renders this very consistent antecedent to the fall. But Thirdly, These being in the loins of Adam, and under the common Lot of Man as to their Creature state, are permitted to fall with the whole mass of humane nature: Elective Grace and Love showed itself in their redemption, but to Angel's prevention, and their fall gives occasion to a New Work and Office to this Immanuel, and New Discoveries of his Love and Grace to these elected fellows, John 12.24. Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He compares his death to seed; says he, if I die not, I shall lose all my fellows designed; my Company and Train in heaven will not only be fewer, but I shall lose one whole kind of them, and that of next kindred to my own nature; I will never suffer it, I have power over my own Life to lay it down, and take it up, I am resolved to take their burden on my shoulders, the curse they are under shall strike through my Soul, but I will redeem them; I will give them a singular evidence of the goodness of their Lord and Master they are to serve. On the other hand, God the Father, with whom I should have begun, the God of all Grace, that he might manifest it in all its variety, and render the difference between the Creature and Creator more lustrious, and the degrees and steps of Happiness more numerous and tasteful, suffered them, permitted them to fall, but knew of one among the number, a noble elect vessel, that could not fall; yea, that could give satisfaction for their transgression; to glorify his sovereignty, in showing what a subject was in his dominion, he commands him, Psal. 40. I come to do thy will; thy Law is within my heart; And to glorify his goodness, he gives this Lord of all to be their Priest, Sacrifice, Redeemer and Surety; the whole transaction we may read in the Covenant of Redemption, Isa. 50.20. Psalm 89.3, 19, 20, 27. The Redeemer shall come to Zion,— This is my Covenant with them, my spirit that is upon thee, etc. shall not departed from thy seed: It's a Covenant with him concerning them; I have made a covenant with my chosen,— one chosen out of the people,— I have laid help on one that is mighty: Zach. 6.13. A Counsel of peace between the Lord of Hosts, and the man the branch. By virtue of this Covenant the Creditor may pursue him for his voluntary undertaking, and Christ may sue out deliverance for his performance, therefore it becomes us to carry our petitions first to him, that in his right we may be delivered. 2. By virtue of this Covenant, and that relation that gave foundation to it, their arises a most strict union between Christ and us: Now the more they are one, the more reason for his righteousness to be imputed to us; they are one seed, Gal. 3.16, 29. and to thy seed, which is Christ: You may pursue any of the Brothers that share of the Father's estate; any of the Members of the body may be punished for what another has done: We are all Members of one body. When a Society would give sufficient ground of Credit, they put it in their constitution, that you may pursue one for all; here through the oneness of nature all became Bankrupt through Adam; but much more united is that Society, one in Christ. Ruther, par. 2. p. 251. (1.) One and the same legal party, the same object of justice; he that pursues the surety, pursues the Debtor: (2.) The Debt is one; It's but one Debt that Christ suffered for, and sinners suffer for. (3.) The satisfaction or payment is one; it cannot be required of the principal debtor, what the surety has paid. (4.) The acceptation is one, if he accept of payment from the Surety, he cannot pursue the Debtor; and the Discharge is one, as Christ was delivered for our Offences, he risen again for our Justification. If a sinner was assured that he were an elect vessel, he might say, I have paid all in my surety; but as we have the privilege of minors, so have we the folly, and therefore are treated as them, who have not wisdom to manage their own Estate. 3. The Office that Christ was put in through this Covenant for us, is a just foundation for imputation, Heb. 7.22. He was made surety of a better covenant: Whatever the word signifies there, it is for us as a Priest towards God, that he exerts it, as to the signification of the word tho' its but this once in the New-Testament, yet several times the seventy use it as the proper translation of Gharab, which Prov. 6.1. and 17.19. signifieth surety, so Gen. 43.9. I will be surety for him, let me bear the blame for ever: 44.32. Thy servant became surety for the lad: The end of suretyship is to be a ground of Trust; Dum curant homines ut diligentius sibi cautum sit, I have laid help on one that is mighty. (2.) One becomes so for another by contract, if in his own power, Fidejussor fit per stipulationem; be not thou one of them that strike hands, or that are sureties for Debts. (3.) It legally unites the persons, Fidejussor, propriè dicitur debtor: He was made under the Law; Singuli in solidum tenentur; each are bound for the whole; He was made sin, that knew no sin. (4.) 'tis of several kinds; either it may preceded or follow the Obligation, it may either be for debt or for persons indemnity, or good behaviour, or for performance of condition, Isa. 36.8. Give pledges, I pray thee, to my Master, the King of Assyria: There is something of each of these in Christ's Suretyship; The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all: Those that thou gavest me I have kept: All that the Father giveth me, shall come to me: His Suretyship is that of satisfaction for guilt past, in the Covenant of Works, and that of caution in the Covenant of Grace: Thus Brinsley, Where there is a Suretyship, there is just ground for legal imputation, but Christ's Mediatorial Office is a Suretyship, therefore it found'st a just ground of imputation to them for whom 'twas undertaken.  
There are two Questions, the solution whereof might contribute a consiberable light in this affair, one is, What kind of righteousness that is which is imputed, and the second is, how far it is made ours by imputation, and the one contributes light to the other, as to the (1.) There is righteousness in Christ as he is God, his essential Holiness. (2.) A Righteousness as he is God-man, abstractledy taken from the work of Redemption for us. (3.) There is a Righteousness in his now present glorified estate, wherein he applies what he did for us to us, which carries a conformity to the Covenant of Redemption, and therefore is a righteousness. (4.) There is a twofold righteousness in his performance of the mediatorial office for us here below, one by reason of its conformity to the Mediatorial Law, which required the faithful discharge of a King, Priest and Prophet, at his hand, the other in a conformity to the Law that we were under, into which place that undertaking put him. As there are four kinds of righteousness to be distinguished in Christ, so there are three degrees of imputation; One is only for a persons good Profit or Honour, and thus all in Christ is; 'tis an honour to mankind that there is such a glorious person come of the family, he is the light that enlighteneth every one that comes into the world, he came to restore all things; that first relation I have before mentioned as head and end of all the Creatures, which fitted him, and rendered it proper and becoming that he should become our redeemer, was much for man's profit and good: A 2d. Degree of imputation is for our sake; for their sakes do I sanctify myself; when we become the end, and he the means, and thus the whole Mediatorial Office was undertaken by him, the whole of that work was the delivery of Mankind, especially the elect, although we are not made Priest, Prophet and King, we reap the benefit of these offices, all their causality combined in our salvation, and so doth his intercession unto this day: 3d. There is a nearer degree of imputation, when what's done is done in our name, room and place, which Brinsley calls the office of an Attorney: I shall give my thought of it by these two properties; When Christ doth for us what he was not obliged to do for himself as God-man. 2. When we who were obliged to do it, are freed from the obligation by his doing of't, and under this Christ's passive righteousness is comprehended; but passive righteousness may justly comprehend the whole state of his humiliation, from his Conception to his Resurrection: He grew up as a root out of a dry ground, without form or comeliness; he made himself of no reputation, and his first likeness to man was in the form of a Servant, and in that fashion he became obedient unto death: Great glory and dignity was the due of the humane nature from the first minute of union. If a King should marry the poorest Beggar, she is Queen from that minute, and has a right to share with her Husband in his plenty and honour, but a deniedness to this, a being emptied of it, as 'tis in the 2d. of Phil. was a great part of Humiliation, and a birth of this kind was meritorious; the throwing such a thick veil over his proper glory, the obscuring of his brightness by such a thick cloud. All righteousness has necessarily an active obedience accompanying it, or rather is it, for a passive suffering without it is not righteousness; for all righteousness consists in action and habit, and has a relation to the preceptive part of the Law, so what had been to us merely a curse, was to him obedience and righteousness, because he came under a Law to perform it; for what was the penalty of the first Adam's Law, was obedience to the Mediatorial Law, satisfaction to one, righteousness to the other: (3.) Though Christ as man was bound to obey the Moral Law, viz. Not to bear false witness, not to steal or kill, yet his obedience was in such circumstances that rendered it meritorious; all his Sermons and his Death too was a bearing witness to the truth, and so an obedience to the ninth Command, yet not such obedience as he was antecedently obliged to, his restoring that which he took not away, his being denied to that which was his due, was obedience he performed to the eighth Commandment: His praising God in the Church here below, his prayers and faith, with strong cries and tears, was an obedience to the first table, that he was not obliged to as God-man: He might have been man without being the seed of Abraham, and therefore he was not obliged to be circumcised, which was a great part of suffering, for 'twas a great dishonour, an acknowledgement and public confession of Original Sin. And if our Original Sin thus on him, why not his Original Righteousness, not as man, but as man in our likeness, born of a Woman, conceived in a Womb, and Beza so expounds, Rom. 8.1, 2. Now there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus,— For the law of the spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, the Holiness, the unspotted Purity and habitural righteousness of Christ as man, being imputed to the Believer, hath made me free from the Law of sin and death: That convinces of the one, and binds over to the other, viz. Death; thus Beza, Hemingius, Elton, Parr, Streso, Downham: As he was the seed of the Woman, and our Brother, he was bound to obey the moral Law as suited to this estate, but there was not a necessity of being born of a Woman, he might have become man in a more glorious manner, he might have assumed such a Manhood as he now wears; there is a great difference to be made between the deuce of Christ as Emanuel, and as Mediator: The Originals are different, the one flows from his Actions and Sufferings, Function and Investiture, the other nakedly from the Union, which last remains, 1 Cor. 15. when the former is laid down. (4.) Though the Scriptures point at Christ's Death and Blood principally as the price and satisfaction, Acts 20.28. Heb. 9.12. Rev. 1.5. & 5.9. Eph. 1.7. yet that may well be understood by way of eminence, it being the pinnacle of the penalty, and doth instruct us that the necessity of the satisfaction was founded in a holy, just and good Law, and not in the nature of God: The satisfaction did not make any change in the divine nature, to turn him out of an angry temper into a gracious, kind and merciful one, for the gift of the Son flowed from the unchangeableness of his Love, but God as Supreme King and Governor by a just Law, well and wisely established, could not in Honour admit Rebels to the Privileges he designed for them, without a satisfaction made to the Government, which must be what the Law required, and that required Death; and as our Death gins with a mortal nature, and increases through sickness and weakness, until it be completed in a Death-stroke, or some violence prevent the gradualness, so Christ became like us in all things, excepting sin; one drop of Christ's Blood, one day of his humility, had dignity enough in in it, but he was to pay what the Law required, and the Law obtained all its ends in him. This may help us to understand these Phrases used very rudely, that God loves the elect when sinning as well as when praying: It's true as he is God, for there is no change in him, but not true as our God or Governor, and the Language of Scripture is in this latter sense, as he manifests himself through Law or Gospel, these being Rules of his dispensations, and glasses of our knowledge. (5.) On the other hand, though we obey the Law in some measure, and have a measure of suffering, which is acceptable to God through Christ, if we have faith in him, yet this comes in as no satisfaction to that primitive Law, for we are not obliged to do what he did for us; it comes in as a preparing us for a possession in a holy Society, where no unclean thing can enter, so the imputation of Christ's obedience takes not away the necessity of our obedience, more than his passive takes away the necessity of our suffering or dying; It's appointed for all once to die, though Christ died, and it's appointed for all to obey, though Christ obeyed; neither our suffering nor our obedience comes in as a part of that righteousness that first Law required of us, as belonging to the covenant of Works; the breaking of this clay vessel either by Death, or what's equivalent, is necessary for our habitation in another Sphere, where this cannot enter; blessings of that would be a torment to this constitution: Sufferings are necessary to make us sensible what we deserve, and what our Saviour suffered for us; Holiness and Righteousness is necessary by precept, and as a means to fit and prepare for that possession. (3.) Through a congruity, as a fruit and an effect of that image of God begun to be drawn in us, by reason of which when in its perfection, it may be said, The Law is not made for a righteous man; and we read of no Law given to Adam, but Ceremonial Laws; the nature of God is the first Law; the Moral Law revealed is but a Copy of that divine temper, and when it's perfectly writ in a Man's Heart without any blot, mistake or defect, to live holily is to live as he list, and by reason of this disposition of Soul a Saint can never be said to be without law, yet if we take law for an external Command, swaying by the force of its sanction against the stream of Inclination, a man is neither of the Law, nor under the Law. The 2d. and last Head proposed, was about the sense of these words, Faith imputed to Righteousness, about which there are these three Opinions: Some say that Faith is taken objectively, Faith comprehending Christ's Righteousness is put for it, or Faith in justification is always valued as comprehending Christ's Righteousness. 2. Others say that God out of his Gracious Acceptation takes faith for the Righteousness Blessedness is due to; we say Christ's Righteousness comes in the room of that, they that Christ merited, that faith should be taken for it. The 3d. Which my judgement embraces, is, that faith is reckoned of God the mean of Application, or Instrument of conveyance of Christ's Righteousness to us: Imputation applied to Faith is a note of Distinction, implying a double use of Faith, the one is by inhesion, and so it sanctifies us, the other is by imputation, and so it justifies us, because it is the ceremony of Seisin, by which we are invested with, and entitled to the righteousness of Christ; this suits best with the former Metaphor of imputation in Books of accounts, for 'tis not only usual and necessary to transfer and impute Estates in Books of Accounts, where great Funds and Banks are, but there is given to the person who is made Creditor a Bank-bill or Tally, bearing the value of the transferred sum, so that bit of Stick or Paper through imputation, if we compare it with these Bank-Books, makes the Man worth so much money as the transferred sum is; so in the Lamb's Book of Life there's not only a transferring of his righteousness to us, but there is given out this Bill or Tally of Faith to us, by which we are entitled to it: There are many Arguments which may both prove and explain this. (1.) It is without doubt that all our privileges are conveyed one way, Faith bears the same relation to them all, Rom. 4.16. It's said the inheritance is of Faith, that it might be by grace; now Heb. 11.1. Faith's called the substance of things hoped for; Substance, saith Tho. Aquin. is the beginning of a thing that necessarily at last infers the whole, that's in our English an Earnest; now if Faith be an earnest of Heaven, it bears the like relation to other privileges, as Rev. 2.17. We read of a white stone, and in the stone a New Name; that was the stone of absolution, the Judge anciently instead of speaking his Sentence conveyed it, by the giving of a white or black stone; so if Faith be the earnest of our hopes, it's the stone of our pardon, it's the Ring of our Marriage with Christ, it's the Winte Raiment, Feast and New Name of our Manumission by justification; out of Slaves we are made Freemen, and Faith is the mean and instrument of Investiture with it. (2.) This sense of it removes a considerable difficulty among Divines, the Question is, since Justification is a transitory act of God, and terminates upon the Creature, what it is that he doth when he justifies, or what bears the room of the justifying sentence? most say, the Word of God, the Gospel, but there's a great distinction between the voice of the Law and the voice of the Judge; the Law says, Whosoever believes shall be justified, but the voice of the Judge is, thou John or Thomas art absolved, it's a particular, positive and authorative Application of the Law. Mr. Baxter thinks, that God proclaims some public Sentence among the Angels, but that's a groundless Notion; this seems to me most reasonable, that the gift of Faith being such a fruit of his special grace, that he gives to no sinner but whom he justifies, its relative Language should be, I justify thee, I pardon or absolve thee, for the same Gift may have two Uses, as a Ring in Marriage, it enriches and it marries, the one by its own Inherent value, the other by constitution; so Faith sanctifies by its own inherent virtue, and justifies by impuration. (3.) It shows us what influence the Holy Ghost has in our justification; all the three Person concur in all transient and external Acts, and in particular, this act is ascribed to the Spirit, 1 Cor. 6.11. But ye are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God: There's no more reason for derogating justification from the Spirit of God, then from derogating sanctification from the Name of the Lord Jesus: The verse contains two Blessings, Sanctification and Justification; two Authors of them, the Lord Jesus and the Spirit; two ways of Application of their virtue, the Merit of the one, and the Spiritual Efficiency of the other, in name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God: Some think the Spirits Efficiency in Justification is to give the comfort and the knowledge of it, but that's no causality that may come forty years after the effect, but this gives an easy solution to the Text; the Spirit of God works Faith, which entitles to Christ's Righteousness, therefore we are justified by the Spirit, and may be is called the Spirit of Adoption upon the same account, for the Spirit of Faith and Spirit of Prayer are one, and the Spirit of Adoption; Rom. 8.15. is that whereby we call Abba, Father; so he may be also called the Spirit of Justification by his working, justifying faith, and this seems to be pointed at 1 Tim. 1.14. The grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant, with faith and love: There are two Blessings mentioned, and both Preventive, exceeding grace, with faith and love: It is not said, and Faith, and Love, to import barely the contemporariness of the Gift of Pardon and Faith, but the way of conveyance; thus God gave me Faith and Love, when I was a Blasphemer, and a Persecutor, and with Faith, or through Faith I obtained mercy, the Grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant in this blessing, in giving faith, and a pardon through faith. (4.) Christ's justification is a pattern of ours, Rom. 4.24. He risen again for our justification: 1 Tim. 3.16. He was justified in the Spirit; the work of the Spirit in raising him from the Dead was a justifying act upon him; in the World he was condemned as a mere man, and thereby a deceiver, saying, he was God, but Rom. 1.3. He was declared to be the Son of God with power, by the spirit of holiness in his resurrection: His state of Humiliation was status reorum, he was in the condition of a guilty man, in prisonand judgement, Isa. 53. He was condemned, that he might condemn sin in the flesh, and that there might be no condemnation to them that are in him; he could not be punished under God's Government without sin inherent or imputed, Isa. 50.8. He is near that justifieth me; he justified him in his raising him from the dead, and setting him at his right hand, so condemned him in humbling him; at the resurrection his justification and vivification was one and the same thing in different relations, 1 Pet. 3.18. He was put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit; when the Spirit quickened him, he justified him; his death was consequently a condemnation, not only by man but God, as by his determinate counsel under his Government. Sydenham and Brinsley say, in his resurrection, as Attorney he took up the bond of the old Covenant in Court for his Clients, John 16. The spirit now in the Gospel bears witness to his righteousness as our Head and Surety, because he goes to his Father, i. e. witnesses he was justified as our Surety, and therefore his resurrection is our acquittance or solution, he had never gone to Heaven else. (5.) No punishment can be justly removed before the Person be justified or absolved; the removal of our Spiritual Death by the gift of his Spirit, is a removal of our greatest punishment, therefore it carries absolution in its bosom, and by it we may easily answer the Papists, who argue our justification and sanctification to be one, because the Scripture mentions a relation certainly above a bare connexion of time, Rom. 8.1, & 2. in v. 1. a connexion, but in v. 2. some causality. This place, says Stapleton, Ant. p. 625. is a torment to Beza and Calvin, but Calvin's Comment frees himself, for though he yields inherent holiness to be the sense of the 2d. v. the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or for the influence it has on, no condemnation in the v. 1. is thus, Non assignari caasam à paulo, sed modum quo so●vimur à reatu, Sanctification contains a way of our being freed from guilt as well as filth of sin. I argue against the Papists thus, there could be no Argument to prove the one from the other, if both were one. 2ly. This interprets the relation, such texts as this, and more evidently Tit. 3. 1 Cor. 6. implies between these two twins, viz. the same grace sanctifies as a principle of efficiency in the Believer, and justifies as a foundation of relation it raises between the Believer and God, now let the Papists find one Scripture to torment a Protestant Interpreter with this key in his hand, or any advantage to their side who say justification is, justification is the ornamental or enriching value of the Ring, its marriage virtue? or the relation between man and wife? (6.) The being put in Covenant is also a relative blessing, and we are brought thereinto by God's pouring out his spirit on us; This is my covenant, Heb. 8. There is a very obvious objection against this, viz. The Scripture commonly attributes Justification and Pardon to the exercise of Faith, Abraham believed in God, and 'twas counted to him for righteousness; but this Doctrine about it lays the stress of its justifying virtue on the gift of it, and the same objection may be otherways proposed, the Scripture lays the justifying virtue of faith on the object of it, it is not a miraculous faith, believing I shall be cured, nor an Historical Faith, believing the truth of a particular relation in the Scripture, but a Believing on him that justifies the ungodly for justification, a believing on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; through the belief of his being delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification. And (3.) The like objections may be raised against these, Eph. 2.8. That we are saved by grace through faith, and that not of ourselves, but as the gift of God: For we are his Workmanship, Tit. 3.5. Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration, that being justified by his grace: Thus we see the Scripture lays an Emphasis on each of them, the gift of Faith, the nature of Faith, the object of Faith, and indeed this Bill would be but a counterfeit one, if it wanted any of these Properties or Relations. 1. It must be received from him that hath the power, or else it is not valid; By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many. 2. It must be in true form, rightly dictated, that is its nature, or not valid. 3. The divine constitution, the Law of Heaven has made it have such a relation to Christ's righteousness, the riches of his Grace, and the Wisdom of the constitution shines in the fitness of the instrument, for our Souls are an open begging hand, a vast Appetite, It cries daily, who will show us any good? some good things I want, some more good, and this Faith clasps the hand on Christ offered, determines and centres the desire, as on an Object that has all fullness in him, full satisfaction, and ●o build a relation and union of right upon an union of nature; a Communion upon a cement of Union honours the Wisdom of the contriver: So we see all these three must be in a valid Bank-bill; it is not worth a Farthing in itself, a bit of Paper inked, but relatively to such a Sum, suppose 1000 l. it's worth so much, its very form consists in relation to that sum, that's its Object, it signally bears it, and if rightly drawn, and received from the right owner, their Constitution and the Law will make me Possessor in due time: If any of these qualifications be wanting, it is not worth a Farthing: 1. Drawn in true forms. 2. Bearing relation to its proper Object. 3. Received from him who has the riches in his power to give: And I find our Catechim and Confession insists as much on this as any; Conf. c. 11.— Nor by imputing itself the act of believing, or any other Evangelical Obedience, but by imputing the Obedience and Satisfaction of Christ unto them, they receiving it by Faith, which is the Gift of God. 11. Thus it's the alone Instrument of Justification, i. e. they are not justified until the Holy Spirit doth in due time actually apply Christ unto them. Our lesser Catech. Q. How are we made partakers of the Redemption purchased by Christ? R. By the effectual application of it to us by his Holy Spirit; for which they quote Tit. 3.5, 6, 7. Q. How doth the Spirit apply the Redemption, & c? R. By working Faith in us, and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling. I may from thence form this Argument, Maj. When Christ and his benefits are applied to us, we are justified. Min. But when God effectually calls, Christ and his benefits are applied to us. Erg. When effectually called, we are justified. It is granted, that Faith is the fruit of effectual Calling, and it cannot be denied that relations, viz. Justification, Adoption, flow as suddenly from their Foundations as effects can from their efficients. Or thus, Maj. The imputing Faith to Righteousness is an application of Christ and his benefits: Min. But the Spirit by working Faith applies Christ and his benefits: Erg. The Spirit by working Faith imputes Faith to Righteousness. But I need no other Testimony but Scripture, that way the Faith of Miracles temporally saved, that way saving Faith justifies; but by the Spirits working the Faith of Miracles, when he saw their Faith, it was certainly a miraculous Gift, distinguishing and characterizing the persons to be healed; to give him that Faith, was to say, thou art to live to be cured, there was no cooperation of the creature to a Miracle. Further, compare C. 4, & 5. and we find imputing Faith to Righteousness, and giving a Righteousness, are the same; but Objections are not to be answered as Bullets in war, with the like, but explication and distinction: For the 1. The reason, the nature or exercise of faith is insisted on in Scripture so much, is for our instruction; if the faith that God has given be that which entitles to Heaven and Happiness. 2. The reason the object is so much intimated, is to prevent a most dangerous error that the World is most liable to, viz Leaning on our own righteousness; such fools, to take the Bill for the Sum: But its certain the owner and proprietor must be the conveyer, I challenge to show what he doth else that looks like it. For the 2d. I propose these two Distinctions: 1. Between the state of justification and particular acts of pardon, or between the state of adoption, and particular blessings in possession; the former is conveyed through the gift of faith, the latter through the exercise of faith; a man gets right by the receiving of a Bill from the Proprietor, but when he comes for such a part of it, he brings his Bill and shows it, and writes a receipt on the back of it. Tho' we are but once justified, we daily pray, Lord forgive my debts; and once adopted, we daily pray for more enjoyment of what is due to that title. 2ly. With Mr. Frost, I propose a double instrumentality of Faith, one on the giver's part, another on the receivers; so it is with Bills too; the Proprietor conveys his right, and the Receiver afterward pleads his right; so it is with faith, God conveys Christ and his Righteousness through it, and we plead for the benefit and use of it, as we need daily. But this I shall retain, that from the first gift of saving Faith, which turns us from ungodly to godly, we are justified and adopted persons, which entirely throws out that legal conditionality that among Socinians has thrown out Christ's satisfaction, and among Arminians has impaired and delayed its virtue toward sinners, until they come with something in themselves, a conformity to a new Law: And also Antinomianism, which is a denomination that comprehends all Errors, dishonourable to the Law or Law giver, and whatever Doctrine is against the necessity, stability and perfection of the Law of God, is of this kind; whatever Doctrine removes the necessity of the Law, removes the necessity of Christ's satisfaction, and what Doctrine removes perfection from the Law of God, removes the Glory from God's Holiness; but to suppose one under the Law saved, and that Law neither fulfilled nor satisfied by the personor his Surety, is to suppose the Law changeable, not necessary; if Christ only fulfilled the mediatorial Law, and not that we were under, than that Law and Government bult on it was removed and changed without satisfaction. If the grand influence of Christ's righteousness by the Mediatorial Law was to get it changed for an easier and less perfect, we must either say, the influence of Christ's satisfaction did terminate on the nature of God, and make a change in his temper from anger to mercy, and perfection of holiness to indulgence in carnality or say; that the Father and Son were of two different minds, but the latter through his obedience gained him to his mind; for what has influence on God, as Govenrour, has influence on the Law, (Administrations of Government must be ruled by the Law) and what has influence on the Law for our good, must fulfil its precepts or satisfy its sanction. The Law has no other Language, and if Christ did neither, the influence must not terminate on the Government, but on the nature God, or Father's person in the Godhead. But the Scripture informs us, That God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us: In us, says Vastius, by application, but in Christ by inhesion; in us by imputation, but in Christ personally, says Calvin, Muscus, Beza, Rollock, Fulke, Cartwright, Elton; says Dr. Jacomb, all Protestants; he adds, his active and has passive as if they had obeyed it in their own Persons, the Law is wholly fulfilled in him, and that very righteousness is ours in a Law sense, and so fulfilled in us. 3ly. It overthrows Libertinism, for if the same grace sanctifies that justifies, they can never pretend to the one that want the other. 4ly. Popery, that makes justification and sanctification one, that differ as far as the Category of Quality and Relation. I have no place for further use, than to entreat every one as they love their own souls, and long for pardon of sin, not to quench or provoke the Holy Spirit of God, for that is his Errand as well as sanctification. 2. As ever they would enjoy this free spirit, be diligent and conscientious in all Ordinances, that are ministrations of the Spirit; he is to be received in the bearing of Faith. 3. Study this imputed righteousness of Christ, until thou experience most deep humility and most sweet comfort from it, Rom. 11.19. Thou standest by faith, be not high minded, but fear; thou depends entirely for faith and righteousness on another, thou wast prevented in thy ungodliness, when thou received that gift. 2. How much will God do for thee, when thou art his Son and Servant, if he did so much for thee when an eremy, Rom. 5.9. Much more than being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved; thou hast now given to thee at once a perfect and an everlasting righteousness, a total forgiveness of all thy sins, a work of holiness God has engaged to perfect.  
Vale.  
FINIS.  
Grant me this, there was never any thing so well done by man, wherein there is not room for further industry,  Calv.