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.
§. V. [Sidenote: Posit. 1.] As to the first, I prove it from _Rom._
iii. 25. _Whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through Faith
in his Blood, to declare his Righteousness for the Remission of Sins
that are past, through the Forbearance of God_. [Sidenote: Proof I.
_The Efficacy of Christ’s Death to redeem Man out of Evil._] Here
the Apostle holds forth the Extent and Efficacy of _Christ’s Death_,
shewing that thereby, and by Faith therein, Remission of Sins that
are past is obtained, as being that wherein the Forbearance of God is
exercised towards Mankind. So that though Men for the Sins they daily
commit deserve eternal Death, and that the Wrath of God should lay
hold upon them; yet, by Virtue of that most _satisfactory Sacrifice of
Christ Jesus_, the Grace and Seed of God moves in Love towards them,
during the Day of their Visitation; yet not so as not to strike against
the Evil, for that must be burnt up and destroyed, but to redeem Man
out of the Evil.
[Sidenote: Proof II.] _Secondly_, If God were perfectly reconciled
with Men, and did esteem them just while they are actually unjust, and
do continue in their Sins, then should God have no Controversy with
them[72]; how comes he then so often to complain, and to expostulate
so much throughout the whole Scripture with such as our Adversaries
confess to be justified, telling them, _That their Sins separate
betwixt him and them_? Isa. lix. 2. For where there is a perfect and
full Reconciliation, there is no Separation. Yea, from this Doctrine it
necessarily follows, either that such for whom _Christ_ died, and whom
he hath reconciled, never sin, or that when they do so, they are still
reconciled, and their Sins make not the least Separation from God; yea,
that they are justified in their Sins. From whence also would follow
this abominable Consequence, that the good Works and greatest Sins of
such are alike in the Sight of God, seeing neither the one serves
to justify them, nor the other to break their Reconciliation, which
occasions great Security, and opens a Door to every lewd Practice.
[72] I do not only speak concerning Men before _Conversion_, who
afterwards are converted, whom yet some of our Antagonists, called
_Antinomians_, do aver were justified from the Beginning; but also
touching those who according to the common Opinion of _Protestants_
have been converted; whom albeit they confess they persist always in
some _Misdeeds_, and sometimes in _heinous Sins_, as is manifest in
_David_’s Adultery and Murder, yet they assert to be perfectly and
wholly justified.
[Sidenote: Proof III.] _Thirdly_, This would make void the whole
practical Doctrine of the Gospel, and make Faith itself needless. For
if Faith and Repentance, and the other Conditions called for throughout
the Gospel, be a Qualification upon our Part necessary to be performed,
then, before this be performed by us, we are either fully reconciled to
God, or but in a Capacity of being reconciled to God, he being ready
to reconcile and justify us as these Conditions are performed; which
latter, if granted, is according to the Truth we profess. And if we
are already perfectly reconciled and justified before these Conditions
are performed (which Conditions are of that Nature that they cannot be
performed at one Time, but are to be done all one’s Life-time) then
can they not be said to be absolutely needful; which is contrary to
the very express Testimony of Scripture, which is acknowledged by all
Christians: [73]_For without Faith it is impossible to please God.
They that believe not are condemned already, because they believe
not in the only begotten Son of God. Except ye repent, ye cannot be
saved: For if ye live after the Flesh, ye shall die_. And of those that
were converted; [74]_I will remove your Candlestick from you, unless
ye repent_. Should I mention all the Scriptures that positively and
evidently prove this, I might transcribe much of all the doctrinal
Part of the _Bible_. For since Christ said, _It is finished_, and did
_finish his Work_ sixteen hundred Years ago and upwards; [Sidenote:
_A Door of Mercy opened by Christ, upon Repentance._] if he so fully
perfected Redemption then, and did actually reconcile every one that is
to be saved, not simply opening a Door of Mercy for them, offering the
Sacrifice of his Body, by which they may obtain Remission of their Sins
when they repent, and communicating unto them a Measure of his Grace,
by which they may see their Sins, and be able to repent; [Sidenote:
_The _Antinomians_ Opinion of Reconciliation and Justification._] but
really making them to be reputed as just, either before they believe,
as say the _Antinomians_, or after they have assented to the Truth of
the History of Christ, or are sprinkled with the Baptism of Water,
while nevertheless they are actually unjust, so that no Part of their
Redemption is to be wrought by him now, as to their _Reconciliation_
and _Justification_; then the whole doctrinal Part of the _Bible_
is useless, and of no Profit: in vain were the Apostles sent forth
to preach Repentance and Remission of Sins; and in vain do all the
Preachers bestow their _Labour_, spend their _Breath_, and give forth
_Writings_; yea, much more in vain do the People spend their Money
which they give them for Preaching; seeing it is all but _Actum agere_,
but a vain and ineffectual Essay, to do that which is already perfectly
done without them.
[73] Heb. 11. 6. John 3. 18. Luke 13. 3. Rom. 8. 13.
[74] Apoc. 2. 5.