Part 19

§. II. [Sidenote: Observat. _The Method of Justification taken by the Church of_ Rome.] That this _Doctrine of Justification_, hath been and is greatly vitiated in the Church of _Rome_, is not by us questioned; though our Adversaries, who for want of better Arguments do often make Lies their Refuge, have not spared in this Respect to stigmatize us with Popery, but how untruly will hereafter appear. For to speak little of their _Meritum ex condigno_, which was no Doubt a very common Doctrine of the _Romish Church_, especially before _Luther_, though most of their modern Writers, especially in their Controversies with Protestants, do partly deny it, partly qualify it, and seem to state the Matter only as if they were Propagators and Pleaders for good Works by the others denied; yet if we look to the Effects of this Doctrine among them, as they appear in the Generality of their Church Members, not in Things disapproved, but highly approved and commended by their Father the _Pope_ and all his _Clients_, as the most beneficial Casualty of all his Revenue, [Sidenote: _The _Pope_’s Doctrine of _Merits_, the most beneficial of all his _Revenue.] we shall find that _Luther_ did not without great Ground oppose himself to them in this Matter: And if he had not run himself into another Extreme, of which hereafter, his Work would have stood the better. For in this, as in most other Things, he is more to be commended for what he pulled down of _Babylon_, than for what he built of his own. Whatever then the _Papists_ may pretend, or even some good Men among them may have thought, Experience sheweth, and it is more than manifest by the universal and approved Practice of their People, that they place not their _Justification_ so much in Works that are truly and morally good, and in the being truly renewed and sanctified in the Mind, as in such Things as are either nor Good nor Evil, or may truly be called Evil, and can no otherwise be reckoned Good than because the _Pope_ pleases to call them so. [Sidenote: Papists _Justification depends upon the _Pope_’s Bulls._] So that if the Matter be well sifted, it will be found, that the greatest Part of their _Justification_ depends upon the Authority of his _Bulls_, and not upon the Power, Virtue, and Grace of Christ revealed in the Heart, and renewing of it, as will appear. [Sidenote: Proof 1. _Their Sacraments._] _First_, From their Principle concerning their _Sacraments_, which they say confer Grace _ex opere operato_. So that if a Man partake but of them, he thereby obtains Remission of Sin, though he remains as he was; the Virtue of the _Sacraments_ making up the Want that is in the Man. So that this Act of Submission and Faith to the Laws of the Church, and not any real inward Change, is that which justifieth him. As for Example; [Sidenote: _Papists Penance._] if a Man make use of the _Sacrament_, as they call it, _of Penance_, so as to tell over his Sins to a Priest, though he have not true _Contrition_, which the Lord hath made absolutely necessary for penitent Sinners, but only _Attrition_, a Figment of their own, that is, if he be sorry he hath sinned, not out of any Love to God, or his Law which he hath transgressed, but for fear of Punishment, yet doth the Virtue of the _Sacrament_, as they affirm, procure to him Remission of Sins; so that being absolved by the Priest, he stands accepted and justified in the Sight of God. This Man’s Justification then proceedeth not from his being truly penitent, and in any Measure inwardly changed and renewed by the working of God’s Grace in his Heart, but merely from the Virtue of the _Sacrament_, and Authority of the Priest, who hath pronounced him _absolved_; so that his Justification is from somewhat without him, and not within him.

[Sidenote: Proof 2. _Papist Indulgences._] _Secondly_, This will yet more appear in the Matter of _Indulgences_, where Remission of all Sins, not only past but for Years to come, is annexed to the visiting such and such _Churches_ and _Reliques_, saying such and such _Prayers_; so that the Person that so doth is presently cleared from the Guilt of his Sin, and justified and accepted in the Sight of God. As for Example: He that in the great _Jubilee_ will go to _Rome_, and present himself before the Gate of _Peter_ and _Paul_, and there receive the _Pope’s Blessing_; or he that will go a Pilgrimage to _James_’s Sepulchre in _Spain_, or to _Mary_ of _Loreto_, is upon the Performance of those Things promised Forgiveness of Sins. Now if we ask them the Reason how such Things as are not morally good in themselves come to have Virtue? They have no other Answer but _because of the Church and Pope’s Authority_, who being the great Treasurer of the Magazine of _Christ’s Merits_, lets them out upon such and such Conditions. [Sidenote: _Papists Mass, what it is?_] Thus also the Invention of saying _Mass_ is made a chief Instrument of _Justification_; for in it they pretend to offer _Christ_ daily to the Father a _propitiatory Sacrifice_ for the Sins of the Living and Dead: So that a Man for Money can procure _Christ_ thus to be offered for him when he pleases; by which Offering he is said to obtain Remission of Sins, and to stand justified in the Sight of God. From all which, and much more of this Nature which might be mentioned, it doth appear, that the _Papists_ place their Justification, not so much in any Work of Holiness really brought forth in them, and real forsaking of Iniquity, as in the mere Performance of some Ceremonies, and a blind Belief which their Teachers have begotten in them, that the _Church_ and the _Pope_ having the absolute Dispensation of the _Merits of Christ_, have Power to make these Merits effectual for the Remission of Sins, and Justification of such as will perform those Ceremonies. This is the true and real Method of _Justification_ taken by the Generality of the Church of _Rome_, and highly commended by their publick Preachers, especially the _Monks_, in their Sermons to the People, of which I myself have been an Ear and an Eye-witness; however some of their modern Writers have laboured to qualify it in their Controversies. [Sidenote: Luther _and the _Protestants_ opposing the Pope’s Doctrine of Works, fell into the other Extreme, of no good Works necessary to Justification._] This Doctrine _Luther_ and the _Protestants_ then had good Reason to deny and oppose; though many of them ran into another Extreme, so as to deny _good Works to be necessary to Justification_, and to preach up _not only Remission of Sins, but Justification by Faith alone, without all Works, however good_. So that Men do not obtain their _Justification_ according as they are inwardly sanctified and renewed, but are justified merely by believing that _Christ died for them_; and so some may be perfectly justified, though they be lying in gross Wickedness; as appears by the Example of _David_, who they say was fully and perfectly justified while he was lying in the gross Sins of _Murder_ and _Adultery_. As then the _Protestants_ have sufficient Ground to quarrel and confute the _Papists_ concerning those many Abuses in the Matter of _Justification_, shewing how the _Doctrine of Christ_ is thereby vitiated and overturned, and the _Word at God_ made void by many and useless Traditions, the _Law of God_ neglected, while foolish and needless _Ceremonies_ are prized and followed, through a false Opinion of being justified by the Performance of them; and the _Merits_ and _Sufferings_ of Christ, which is the only _Sacrifice_ appointed of God for Remission of Sins, derogated from, by the setting up of a daily _Sacrifice_ never appointed by God, and chiefly devised out of Covetousness to get Money by; [Sidenote: _Papists Device to get Money._] so the _Protestants_ on the other Hand, by not rightly establishing and holding forth the _Doctrine_ of _Justification_ according as it is delivered in the holy Scriptures, have opened a Door for the _Papists_ to accuse them, as if they were Neglecters of good Works, Enemies to Mortification and Holiness, such as esteem themselves justified while lying in great Sins: By which Kind of Accusations, for which too great Ground hath been given out of the Writings of some _rigid Protestants_, the Reformation hath been greatly defamed and hindered, and the Souls of many insnared. Whereas, whoever will narrowly look into the Matter, may observe these Debates to be more _in Specie_ than _in Genere_, seeing both do upon the Matter _land in one_; and like two Men in a Circle, who though they go sundry Ways, yet meet at last; in the same Center.

[Sidenote: _Papists Belief of Justification meets in the same Center with the--_] For the _Papists_ say, _They obtain Remission of Sins, and are justified by the Merits of Christ, as the same are applied unto them in the Use of the Sacraments of the Church, and are dispensed in the Performance of such and such Ceremonies, Pilgrimages, Prayers, and Performances, though there be not any inward renewing of the Mind, nor knowing of Christ inwardly formed; yet they are remitted and made righteous _ex opere operato_, because of the Power and Authority accompanying the Sacraments and the Dispensers of them_.

[Sidenote:--_Protestants Belief. So saith the _Westminster Confession_ of _Faith_. Chap. 11. Sect. 1._] The _Protestants_ say, _That they obtain Remission of Sins, and stand justified in the Sight of God by Virtue of the _Merits_ and _Sufferings_ of Christ, not by infusing Righteousness into them, but by pardoning their Sins, and by accounting and accepting their Persons as righteous, they resting on him and his Righteousness by_ Faith; _which_ Faith, _the Act of believing, is not imputed unto them for Righteousness_.

So the _Justification_ of neither here is placed in any inward Renewing of the Mind, or by Virtue of any spiritual Birth, or Formation of Christ in them; but only by a bare Application of the Death and Sufferings of Christ outwardly performed for them: Whereof the one lays hold on a Faith resting upon them, and hoping to be justified by them alone; the other by the saying of some outward Prayers and Ceremonies, which they judge makes the Death of Christ effectual unto them. I except here, being unwilling to wrong any, what Things have been said as to the Necessity of inward Holiness, either by some _modern Papists_, or some _modern Protestants_, who, in so far as they have laboured after a Midst betwixt these two Extremes, have come near to the Truth, as by some Citations out of them hereafter to be mentioned will appear: Though this Doctrine hath not since the Apostasy, so far as ever I could observe, been so distinctly and evidently held forth according to the Scripture’s Testimony, as it hath pleased God to reveal it and preach it forth in this Day, by the Witnesses of his Truth whom he hath raised to that End; which _Doctrine_, though it be briefly held forth and comprehended in the Thesis itself, [Sidenote: _State of the Controversy._] yet I shall a little more fully explain, and shew the State of the Controversy as it stands betwixt us and those that now oppose us.

§. III. [Sidenote: Expl. 1.] _First_ then, as by the Explanation of the former Thesis appears, we renounce all natural Power and Ability in ourselves, in order to bring us out of our lost and fallen Condition and first Nature; and confess, that as of ourselves we are able to do nothing that is good, so neither can we procure Remission of Sins or Justification by any Act of our own, so as to merit it, or draw it as a Debt from God due unto us; [Sidenote: _Justification springs _of_ and _from_ the Love of God._] but we acknowledge all to be _of_ and _from_ his _Love_, which is the original and fundamental Cause of our Acceptance.

[Sidenote: Expl. 2.] [Sidenote: _Christ giving himself a Sacrifice for us._] _Secondly_, God manifested this _Love_ towards us, in the sending of his beloved Son the Lord _Jesus Christ_ into the World, who gave himself for us an _Offering_ and a _Sacrifice_ to God, for a _sweet-smelling Savour_; and having made Peace through the Blood of his _Cross_, that he might reconcile us unto himself, and by the Eternal Spirit offered himself without Spot unto God, and suffered for our Sins, the _Just_ for the _Unjust_, that he might bring us unto God.

[Sidenote: Expl. 3.] _Thirdly_ then, Forasmuch as all Men who have come to Man’s Estate (the Man _Jesus_ only excepted) have sinned, therefore all have Need of this Saviour, to remove the Wrath of God from them due to their Offences; in this Respect he is truly said to _have borne the Iniquities of us all in his Body on the Tree_, and therefore is the _only Mediator_, having qualified the Wrath of God towards us; so that our former Sins stand not in our Way, being by Virtue of his most satisfactory Sacrifice removed and pardoned. [Sidenote: _To Remission of Sins._] Neither do we think that Remission of Sins is to be expected, sought, or obtained any other Way, or by any Works or Sacrifice whatsoever; though, as has been said formerly, they may come to partake of this Remission that are ignorant of the History. [Sidenote: _The only Mediator betwixt God and Man._] So then Christ by his Death and Sufferings hath reconciled us to God, even while we are Enemies; that is, he offers Reconciliation unto us; we are put into a Capacity of being reconciled; God is willing to forgive us our Iniquities, and to accept us, as is well expressed by the Apostle, 2 _Cor._ v. 19. _God was in Christ, reconciling the World unto himself, not imputing their Trespasses unto them, and hath put in us the Word of Reconciliation_. And therefore the Apostle, in the next Verses, intreats them in _Christ’s Stead to be reconciled to God_; intimating that the Wrath of God being removed by the Obedience of _Christ Jesus_, he is willing to be reconciled unto them, and ready to remit the Sins that are past, if they repent.

[Sidenote: _A twofold Redemption._] We consider then our Redemption in a twofold Respect or State, both which in their own Nature are perfect, though in their Application to us the one is not, nor can be, without Respect to the other.

[Sidenote: I. _The Redemption of Christ without us._] The First is the Redemption performed and accomplished by _Christ for us_ in his crucified Body without us: The other is the Redemption wrought by _Christ in us_, which no less properly is called and accounted a Redemption than the former. The first then is that whereby a Man, as he stands in the Fall, is put into a Capacity of Salvation, and hath conveyed unto him a Measure of that Power, Virtue, Spirit, Life, and Grace that was in _Christ Jesus_, which, as the free Gift of God, is able to counter-balance, overcome, and root out the evil Seed, wherewith we are naturally, as in the Fall, leavened.

[Sidenote: II. _The Redemption wrought by Christ in us._] The Second is that whereby we witness and know this pure and perfect Redemption _in ourselves_, purifying, cleansing, and redeeming us from the Power of Corruption, and bringing us into Unity, Favour, and Friendship with God. By the first of these two, we that were lost in _Adam_, plunged into the bitter and corrupt Seed, unable of ourselves to do any good Thing, but naturally joined and united to Evil, forward and propense to all Iniquity, Servants and Slaves to the Power and Spirit of Darkness, are, notwithstanding all this, so far reconciled to God by the Death of his Son, while Enemies, that we are put into a Capacity of Salvation, having the glad Tidings of the Gospel of Peace offered unto us, and God is reconciled unto us in Christ, calls and invites us to himself, in which Respect we understand these Scriptures; [70]_He slew the Enmity in himself. He loved us first; seeing us in our Blood, he said unto us, Live; he who did not sin his own self, bare our Sins in his own Body on the Tree; and he died for our Sin, the Just for the Unjust._

[70] Eph. 2. 15. 1 John 4. 10. Ezek. 16. 6. 1 Pet. 2. 22, 24. & 3. 18.

By the Second, we witness this Capacity brought into Act, whereby receiving and not resisting the Purchase of his Death, to wit, the Light, Spirit, and Grace of Christ revealed in us, we witness and possess a real, true, and inward Redemption from the Power and Prevalency of Sin, and so come to be truly and really redeemed, justified, and made righteous, and to a sensible Union and Friendship with God.[71] Thus _he died for us, that he might redeem us from all Iniquity_; and thus _we know him and the Power of his Resurrection, and the Fellowship of his Sufferings, being made conformable to his Death_. This last follows the first in Order, and is a Consequence of it, proceeding from it, as an _Effect_ from its _Cause_: So as none could have enjoyed the last, without the first had been, such being the Will of God; so also can none now partake of the first, but as he witnesseth the last. Wherefore as to us, they are both Causes of our Justification; the first the _procuring Efficient_, the other the _formal Cause_.

[71] Tit. 2. 14. Phil. 3. 10.

[Sidenote: Expl. 4.] _Fourthly_, We understand not by this _Justification by Christ_ barely the _good Works even wrought by the Spirit of Christ_; for they, as _Protestants_ truly affirm, are rather an Effect of _Justification_ than the Cause of it; [Sidenote: _The Formation of Christ in us begets good Works._] but we understand the _Formation of Christ in us, Christ born and brought forth in us_, from which good Works as naturally proceed as Fruit from a fruitful Tree. It is this _inward Birth in us, bringing forth Righteousness and Holiness in us, that doth justify us_; which having removed and done away the contrary Nature and Spirit that did bear Rule and bring Condemnation, now is in Dominion over all _in_ our Hearts. Those then that come to know _Christ_ thus formed in them, do enjoy him wholly and undivided, who is _the LORD our RIGHTEOUSNESS_, Jer. xxiii. 6. This is to be clothed with _Christ_, and to have put him on, whom God therefore truly accounteth righteous and just. This is so far from being the Doctrine of _Papists_, that as the Generality of them do not understand it, so the Learned among them oppose it, and dispute against it, and particularly _Bellarmine_. Thus then, as I may say, the formal Cause of Justification is not the Works, to speak properly, they being but an Effect of it; but this inward Birth, this _Jesus_ brought forth in the Heart, who is the well-beloved, whom the Father cannot but accept, and all those who thus are sprinkled with the _Blood of Jesus_, and washed with it. By this also comes that Communication of the Goods of _Christ_ unto us, _by which we come to be made Partakers of the divine Nature_, as faith _Peter_, 2 _Pet._ i. 4. and are made one with him, as the Branches with the Vine, and have a Title and Right to what he hath done and suffered for us; [Sidenote: _Christ’s Obedience, Righteousness, Death and Sufferings are ours._] so that his Obedience becomes ours, his Righteousness ours, his Death and Sufferings ours. And by this Nearness we come to have a Sense of his Sufferings, and to suffer with his Seed, that yet lies pressed and crucified in the Hearts of the Ungodly, and so travail with it, and for its Redemption, and for the Repentance of those Souls that in it are crucifying as yet the _Lord of Glory_. Even as the Apostle _Paul_, _who by his Sufferings _is said to_ fill up that which is behind of the Afflictions of Christ for his Body, which is the Church_. Though this be a Mystery sealed up from all the wise Men that are yet ignorant of this Seed in themselves, and oppose it, nevertheless some _Protestants_ speak of this justification by _Christ_ inwardly put on, as shall hereafter be recited in its Place.

[Sidenote: Expl. 5.] _Lastly_, Though we place Remission of Sins in the _Righteousness and Obedience of Christ performed by him in the Flesh_, as to what pertains to the remote procuring Cause, and that we hold ourselves _formally justified by Christ Jesus formed and brought forth in us_, yet can we not, as some _Protestants_ have unwarily done, _exclude_ Works from _Justification_. [Sidenote: _Good Works are not excluded Justification._] For though properly we be not justified _for them_, yet are we justified _in them_; and they are necessary, even as _Causa sine quâ non_, i. e. _the Cause, without which none are justified_. For the denying of this, as it is contrary to the Scripture’s Testimony, so it hath brought a great Scandal to the Protestant Religion, opened the Mouths of _Papists_, and made many too secure, while they have believed to be justified without good Works. Moreover, though it be not so safe to say _they are meritorious_, yet seeing they are rewarded, many of those called the _Fathers_ have not spared to use the Word [_Merit_] which some of us have perhaps also done in a qualified Sense, but no-ways to infer the _Popish Abuses_ above-mentioned. And _lastly_, if we had that Notion of _good Works_ which most _Protestants_ have, we could freely agree to make them not only not necessary, but reject them as hurtful, viz. _That the best Works even of the Saints are defiled and polluted._ For though we judge so of the best Works performed by Man, endeavouring a Conformity to the outward Law by his own Strength, and in his own Will, yet we believe that such _Works_ as naturally proceed from this spiritual Birth and Formation of Christ in us are _pure_ and _holy_, even as the _Root_ from which they come; and therefore God accepts them, justifies us in them, and rewards us for them of his own _free Grace_. The State of the Controversy being thus laid down, these following _Positions_ do from hence arise in the next Place to be proved.

§. IV. [Sidenote: Posit. 1.] First, _That the Obedience, Sufferings, and Death of Christ is that by which the Soul obtains Remission of Sins, and is the procuring Cause of that Grace, by whose inward Workings _Christ_ comes to be formed inwardly, and the Soul to be made conformable unto him, and so just and justified._ And that therefore, in respect of this Capacity and Offer of Grace, _God_ is said to be _reconciled_; not as if he were actually _reconciled_, or did actually justify, or account any just, so long as they remain in their Sins really impure and unjust.

[Sidenote: Posit. 2.] Secondly, _That it is by this inward Birth of Christ in Man that Man is made just, and therefore so accounted by God_: Wherefore, to be plain, we are thereby, and not till that be brought forth in us, _formally_, if we must use that Word, _justified_ in the Sight of God; because _Justification_ is both more properly and frequently in Scripture taken in its proper Signification for making one just, and not reputing one merely such, and is all one with _Sanctification_.

[Sidenote: Posit. 3.] _Thirdly_, That since _good Works_ as naturally follow from this Birth as Heat from Fire, therefore are they of _absolute Necessity to Justification_, as _Causa sine quâ non_, [Sidenote: _Good Works are _Causa sine quâ non--of_ Justification._] i. e. though not as the Cause _for which_, yet as that _in which_ we are, and without which we cannot be justified. And though they be not _meritorious_, and draw no Debt upon God, yet he cannot but accept and reward them: For it is contrary to his Nature to deny his own, since they may be perfect in their Kind, as proceeding from a pure holy Birth and Root. Wherefore their Judgment is false and against the Truth that say, _That the holiest Works of the Saints are defiled and sinful in the Sight of God_: For these _good Works_ are not the Works of the Law, excluded by the Apostle from Justification.