5. It was a very great instance of grace in our Saviour, that he was pleased to consent to perform this work for us, without which the justice of God could not have exacted the debt of him; and he being perfectly innocent, could not be obliged to suffer punishment, which it would have been unjust in God to have inflicted, had he not been willing to be charged with our guilt, and to stand in our room and stead. And his grace herein more eminently appears, in that though he knew before-hand all the difficulties, sorrows, and temptations, which he was to meet with in the discharge of this work; yet this did not discourage him from undertaking it; neither was he unapprised of the character of those for whom he undertook it: he knew the rebellion, and guilt contracted thereby, that rendered this necessary, in order to their salvation; and he knew before-hand, that they would, notwithstanding all the engagements he might lay on them to the contrary, discover the greatest ingratitude towards him; and, instead of improving so great an instance of condescending goodness, that they would neglect this great salvation, when purchased by him, and thereby appear to be his greatest enemies, notwithstanding this act of friendship to them, unless he not only engaged to purchase redemption for, but apply it to them, and work those graces in them whereby they might be enabled to give him the glory which is due to him for this great undertaking. And this leads us,

VII. To consider the use of faith in justification, and how, notwithstanding what has been said concerning our being justified by Christ's righteousness, we may, in other respects, be said to be justified by faith; and also shew what this faith is, whereby we are justified: which being particularly insisted on in the two following answers, we shall proceed to consider

them.

QUEST. LXXII. What is justifying Faith?

ANSW. Justifying faith is a saving grace, wrought in the heart of a sinner, by the Spirit and word of God; whereby he, being convinced of his sin and misery, and of the disability in himself, and all other creatures, to recover him out of his lost condition, not only assenteth to the truth of the promise of the gospel, but receiveth and resteth upon Christ and his righteousness therein held forth, for pardon of sin, and for the accepting and accounting of his person, righteous in the sight of God for salvation.

QUEST. LXXIII. How doth faith justify a sinner in the sight. of God?

VOL. III.

N

ANSW. Faith justifies a sinner in the sight of God; not because of those graces which do always accompany it, or of those good works that are the fruits of it; nor as if the grace of faith, or any act thereof, were imputed to him for justification; but only as it is an instrument, by which he receiveth and applieth Christ and his righteousness.

WE

E choose first to speak to the latter of these two answers, in which faith is considered as that whereby a sinner is justified, before the former of them, inasmuch as it seems. better connected with what has been before insisted on, in explaining the doctrine of justification. And in considering the account we have of justifying faith, there are two things, which may be taken notice of, in this answer.

I. It is observed, that though there are other graces which always accompany faith and good works, that now from it; yet none of these are said to justify a sinner in the sight of God.

II. How faith justifies, or what it is to be justified by faith. (a)

(a) That faith is a holy duty is evident, because it never obtains, except where the bent, or bias of the mind has been changed by the Holy Spirit; yet it is like all the other works of man, imperfect, and might be stronger. That it is necessary in every action is clear, for whatsoever is not of faith is sin; both because it is the work of an enemy, and because it cannot be accepted, having no reference to Christ. Faith is always accompanied by other holy traits of character, as repentance, love, patience, humility, and the like. The reason of which is evident; for faith is an act of the renewed man, and all the other graces must ac company. But it is even less holy than love; "now abideth faith, hope, charity, (love) the greatest of these is charity." it is incapable of procuring by its righteousness our justification, because imperfect. If it were the holiness of the duty of faith, which justifies the man before God, we should read of a justification by love, patience, humility, or holiness in general. No such declaration occurs in the scriptures, but the reverse; "for by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified," which is manifestly spoken not merely of the corporal energy, but of the action taken with the intention.

If the righteousness of the duty of faith justifies, there could be no propriety in saying that we are "justified by Christ," or his righteousness; there would have been no need of a Saviour, and all the sacrifices of former days were useless. If we are to depend upon the righteousness of our believing for our justification, the believing in Christ will be of no importance, because Christ is then not our Saviour; in proportion as our hopes are founded upon our own holiness, they are withdrawn from Christ.-This will also destroy the righteousness of faith, for if it be useless there can be no holiness in believing.

If the holiness consist not in the act of believing, but in the disposition of the believer, and if it is for this, that he is justified; salvation is then a debt, not grace; we have whereof to boast; we are justified by the deeds of the law; the offence of the cross has ceased; and Arians, Socinians, Unitarians, and Deists are seeking justification also in the same way.

That repentance, and holiness are necessary to salvation is true, because every man who is justified is also sanctified; and that faith, considered as a holy duty is necessary in the same manner, is equally true; but faith is also useful in our

I. That though there are other graces which always accompany faith, and good works that flow from it; yet none of these are said to justify a sinner in the sight of God. There is an inseparable connexion between faith, and all other graces; which, though it be distinguished, is never separate from them. They are all considered as fruits of the Spirit, Gal. v. 22, 23. thus the apostle reckons up several other graces that are connected with faith, and proceed from the same Spirit, such as love, peace, joy, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance and the same apostle commends the church at Thessalonica for their work of faith; and considers this as connected with a labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Thess. i. 3. And the apostle Peter exhorts the church, to which he writes, to add to their faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, to knowledge temperance, to temperance patience, to patience godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity, 2 Pet. i. 5, 6, 7. which supposes that all these graces ought to be connected together. And the apostle James calls it a dead faith, James ii. 17. which has not other works or graces joined with it; and, indeed, these graces are not only connected with it, but flow from it, or are the fruits thereof: thus we read of the heart's being purified by faith, Acts xv. 9. that is, this grace, when acted in a right manner, will have a tendency, in some degree, to purge the soul from that moral impurity, which proceeds out of the heart of man, and is inconsistent with saving faith: and elsewhere we read of faith as working by love, Gal. v. 6. that is, exciting those acts of love, both to God and man, which contain a summary of practical religion. It is also said to overcome the world, 1 John v. 4. and it enables Christians to do or suffer great things for Christ's sake, of which the apostle gives various instances in the Old Testament saints, Heb. xi. But, notwithstanding the connexion of other graces with faith, and those works which flow from it, we are never said, in scripture, to be justified thereby; not by love to God; nor by any act of obedience to him, which can be called no other than works: whereas, when the apostle speaks of our justification by faith, he puts it in opposition to works, when he says, that

justification, and in a manner, in which, it does not appear, that repentance and holiness can be.

To say that they are conditions of salvation is to speak ambiguously; that we cannot be saved without them, is as certain as that we cannot be justified, without being also sanctified; but to say, that by performing them a title to happiness is vested in us, is to reb Christ of his glory, and to put the crown on man's bead. Besides, the condition of holiness is not accomplished till death, and as the condition of our justification is not performed till then, we are never justified in Life, which is plainly contrary to the scriptines.

a man is justified by faith, without the deeds of the law, Rom

ii. 28.

Object. To this it is objected, that the apostle here speaks concerning the ceremonial law, which he excludes from being the matter of our justification, and not the moral law, or any evangelical duty, such as love and sincere obedience, which, together with faith is the matter of our justification.

Answ. To this it may be replied, That when the apostle speaks of our justification by faith, without the deeds of the law, he does not hereby intend the ceremonial law; for those whom he describes as justified persons, are said to be, in a following verse, not only Jews, but Gentiles, that were converted to the Christian faith; the former, indeed, were under a temptation to seek to be justified by the ceremonial law, and so to conclude that they had a right to eternal life; because of their being distinguished from the world, by the external privileges of the covenant which they were under, many of which were contained in, or signified by that law: but the Gentiles had nothing to do with it, and therefore never expected to be justified by the ceremonial law; accordingly, when the apostle speaks of justification by faith without the deeds of the law, he cannot hereby be supposed to intend the ceremonial law. And if we look a little farther into the context, we shall find, by his method of reasoning, that he excludes all works in general, and opposes faith to them; for he argues, that we are justified in such a way, as tends to exclude boasting; but he that insists on any works performed by himself, as the matter of his justification, cannot do this any otherwise than in a boasting way, valuing himself, and founding his right to eternal life, upon them. We are not therefore justified by them, but by faith; that is, we are justified in such a way as that, while we lay claim to the greatest privileges from Christ, we are disposed to give him all the glory, or to renounce our own righteousness at the same time that we have recourse to his righteousness for justification, by faith.

But that it may farther appear, that our justification by faith, is opposed to justification by works, either those that accompany or flow from it, we may apply what has been before suggested, in considering the matter of our justification to this argument. If we consider the demands of justice, or what it may in honour reckon a sufficient compensation for the dishonour that has been brought to the divine name by sin, or what may be deemed a satisfactory payment of the outstanding debt of perfect obedience, which was due from us, or punishment, which we were liable to, according to the sanction of the divine law; we may easily infer, that no obedience, performed by us, though including in it the utmost perfection, that a

fallen creature is capable of attaining, is a sufficient satisfaction; and if there can be no justification without satisfaction, then we cannot be justified thereby. Therefore it is a vain thing for persons to distinguish in this case, between works done before and after faith, as though the former only were excluded from being the matter of our justification; or to say, as some do, that we are not indeed justified by obedience to the moral law, but by our obeying the precepts which our Saviour has laid down in the gospel, such as faith, and repentance, &c. which they call obedience to the gospel as a new law: but let it be considered, that these evangelical duties are supposed to be performed as the result of a divine command, which has the formal nature of a law, whether they be contained in the moral law or no; therefore, when we are justified by faith in opposition to the works of the law, this must be opposed to obedience of any kind performed by us.

And this also appears from the nature of faith, to which justification, by the works of the law, is opposed; for faith is a soul-humbling grace, and includes in it a renouncing of all merit, or inducement taken from ourselves, as a reason why God should bestow on us the blessings we stand in need of; it trusts in Christ for righteousness, and in him aloue, and therefore turns itself from any thing that may have the least tendency to eclipse his glory, as the only foundation of our justification: therefore, when we are said to be justified by faith,. and not by the works of the law, the meaning is, we are justified in such a way as tends to set the crown upon Christ's head, acknowledging him to be the only fountain from whence this privilege is derived.

It follows from hence that our justification cannot be founded on our repentance; though this is often maintained by those who are on the other side of the question, who suppose, that justification contains in it nothing else but forgiveness of sin; and if offences are to be forgiven by men, upon their repentance, or confessing their fault, then forgiveness may be expected from God, on our repentance: and some use a very unsavoury way of speaking, when they say, that our tears have a virtue to wash away our sins; and that they may give farther countenance to this opinion, they refer to that scripture, in which it is said, Repent, that your sins may be blotted out, Acts iii. 19. and others of the like nature; by which we are not to suppose, that the apostle means, that forgiveness of sin is founded on our repentance, as the matter of our justification in the sight of God; but that there is an inseparable connexion between our claim to forgiveness of sin, (together with all the fruits and effects of the death of Christ, whereby this blessing was procured) and repentance; so that one is not to be ex